


Fallen Hero: Fanfic, Chargestep, 9 parts.

by UnadulteratedFanfiction



Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Fallen Hero spoilers, M/M, Male Protagonist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 12:10:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16853731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnadulteratedFanfiction/pseuds/UnadulteratedFanfiction
Summary: Sidestep, the fallen hero  is set on a  self-destructive path that puts him in a direct collision course with allies and enemies that will stop at nothing to derail his plans. A troubled relationship with Ortega, haunted by his own intrusive thoughts, he must deal at every turn with the unexpected consequences of his actions.





	Fallen Hero: Fanfic, Chargestep, 9 parts.

**Author's Note:**

> This was posted in 9 parts on Tumblr. I originally started posting them on the Choice of Games Forums, but Malin told me i should probably post it in Tumblr for the fandom. Now with Tumblr's future in question, i'm moving it here for safekeeping. 
> 
> It's the first thing i've written since high school probably and i'm quite happy with the result. Also, I LOVE Fallen Hero Rebirth, thank Malin for these wonderful characters!!!
> 
> There are spoilers for Fallen Hero of course, and some of Fallen Hero Retribution is referenced since it's in Alpha stage right now!
> 
> (English isn't my primary language so I'll try to screen typos and mistakes)
> 
> Enjoy!

PArt 1  
FH Fanfic MC-Ortega  
Unsolicited Mc-Ortega fanfic from fallen-hero rebirth. An action scene! I originally posted on the forums (User CJS) but the Senpai told me to post it somewhere people can actually read it. So i don’t have a serious tumblr account, but I made one for my cat some time ago. So i guess my cat’s a fanfic writer now!

Spoilers. English isn’t my first language too so bare with me! 

———————————————————————————————

Family Reunion

 

You feel something wrong as your secretary greets you with a weird smile on her face. It takes a few moments before you can tell… Something you’ve become unfamiliar by now  
Her mind’s been tampered with. And not by you.

“The doors are locked sir. You are expected on the first floor” she just announces.  
“I think i’ll head back outside. Can you open the doors for me?” You answer  
“Oh. No. I can’t. Also, there is a bomb at the door and it’s controlled with a remote control. IF you try to get out, you will die” She smiles as if it was the most natural thing in the world to die due to a killer door. “Oh. I think i forgot to mention. You are expected on the first floor”.

You carefully study your options… perhaps you could control her and make her open the door instead setting the trap to let you escape, but you get the feeling your opponent already tought of that. And that would be just Dark. You really don’t want to hurt her. Darn. You feel really trapped now.  
“I guess i’ll go to that meeting then. Where did you say it was ?” you ask casually.  
“First Floor. Have a nice day Sir!” She waves as you enter the elevator to meet your fate.

-A few moments later-

It hurts. As you clear the blood from your nose and try to stand up, you circle lightly to the left. Your attackers follow your every move in kind. Your gaze doesn’t deviate, but your mind tells you the one you struck first is now unconscious. The other two are armed with electro-staffs. Likely here to capture you.  
“Surrender already Fiveofour! You are confused! You’r not following your program”  
“Like hell I am team leader” you answer. Fiveotwo, Fiveoeight and Fiveonine are your brothers and sisters, but you where never allowed to call them that. Fiveotwo is Team leader, and he’s always been Team Leader. If you called him brother he would say it’s a glitch in your programming. You can sense it in his mind.  
“You are corrupted!” Fiveonine acusses. Obviously she’s been reading your last line of thought. Sister.  
“I’m not your sister, and you’r not my brother Fiveofour! You’ve been away too long. It’s time to return.” She thinks you are sick. Suffering some disease than they can get rid with some treatment like antibiotics.  
“No. It is you who are sick. It’s them that made us ignorant! And I’ve broken free!” But really… Have you? Even now you wonder.  
“Dissonant thought Fivofour!” There is no breaking free or denying what we are. He is focusing on the mission and setting your camaraderie aside. He knows you will resist. He will attack.  
“There’s no need for us to attack” Fiveonine interjects. “We can just go back” She honestly thinks all will be forgiven.  
“Forgiveness?. That’s a human need” Team leader answers your thoughts again.  
You smile. You let them hear what you think. They are shocked once again.  
“He thinks himself human” they both realize. Good. You use the chance to jump on the offensive. A powerful line of confusing thoughts directed at Team Leader. You evoke a flock of birds, to entrap him in the adictive line of tought. As he breaks free of it, you’ve already created a cage made out of your feelings for Ortega, the battle with the Catastrophiend and a nightmare you once pulled from a psychiatric patient just in case you would one day need it. It’s full of creepy hands coming from everywhere. 

“How’s that for disonnant?” you ask with a smile.

As Teamleader is befuddled by the mindcage you improvised, Fiveonine steps forwards and strikes at you with her staff. You dodge her electrostaff just in time, but she sidesteps your counterkick just the same. You feel a sudden pull of vertigo as she attempts to gain control of inner ear nerves.

But you’r not the Fiveofour now. You are Sidestep. And you have plenty of experience with this game. You do just the same onto her, and not too soon the both of you collapse having lost all balance. Still, you get up faster and kick her in the ribs, sending flying against the wall. You’ve just done that. To your sister.  
Fiveotwo breaks out of his trance and charges you, sending you onto the floor. You struggle to get up, but you realize Fiveoeight has chosen this moment to awaken and hurries to help pin you down. As you keep trying to break free, Fiveonine joins them and it becomes hopeless.  
“Enough of this. It’s over. Yield!”  
“Never!” There are tears in your eyes as you realize there’s no breaking their grip. You can’t believe this is happening. You can’t accept this. They won’t take you. N. No . NO! 

You summon the memore in all it’s horror, invading their minds like white lightning bolt. 

They all scream in terror and you loose no time breaking free of their hold. Their eyes are blank and they shiver uncontrollably. The Heartbreak. That is the only cage that will hold them. You evoke the memory. So strong. So… overwhelming. The need to … the need to take revenge.  
Some inner part of yourself realizes you’r being overcome by it as well. It’s not just a memory, it’s a psychic event of the highest caliber that feeds itself on the horror and pain it causes. That man you call Heartbreak just ignited the fuse, and became an unwilling flame until the rangers stopped him. To remember it vividly is to summon it with all it’s implications. 

 

If you stop they’ll break free. If you keep it up, you might start doing what Hearbreak did and kill them all. Or maybe it’s them who will start doing that. And then it will move on to someone else. And someone else… And again and again. You remember the policeman taking the gun to his head. You stopped him. But Heartbreak made you take you gun on your own mouth. Ortega stopped you then. Who will stop you now ? THe Cold taste of metal. If only…You shake your head and dispel the madness. That’s not the solution. 

You return to your body, trying to hold the nausea at bay. They collapse on the floor, but if you know anything they’ll recover quickly. Re-genes don’t stay whimpering in their own minds for long. No time for second thoughts. You take what you need from Teamleader’s belt, and then run to the door. No elevator, stairs this time. As you close the stairs door behind you you notice they’ve already reacted and are chasing you again. Not fair that’s just too fast…

 

As you get down to the lobby you notice the secretary is lying unconscious by the elevator, and two figures are fighting. One you can tell it’s Fiveothree. The other is Ortega

 

“The hells are you doing” Cyrus? why are you attacking me?“ He asks Fiveothree. Of course. Fiveothree looks just like you so why wouldn’t he think it’s you?. Just like you and all your brothers of the fifth hundred. Even your sisters of the fifth share your features.

 

Fiveothree is panicking. He was never good at fighting opponents whose htoughts he couldn’t read.  
“What are you?”  
“What-the-hell! Stop it!” Ortega blocks a hit aimed at his leg, and gets punched in the face instead. “Enough!” he yells, and sends a fist at Fivothree, that connects right with his nose.  
Before he can recover, you make a grab for his arm from behind, and toss him against the stairs door just in time to block your other three siblings from coming trough.  
“Ortega, I can’t explain this right now but we need to stop them first!”  
He just stares at you dumbfounded.

Crap. He’s too confused.

The door opens and two more people that have your exact face and one with a female version of it emerge.

 

“New villain. Multiplies and can copy other people’s appearances” you lie as fast as you can. This he should understand. You just hope he’ll react in time.  
Ortega does  
He charges forward, the electro-staffs not able to harm him.  
You fight. Together. They block and dodge like only you could. They circle around fast, getting near the door, blocking your escape route.  
“Join us” your sister asks.  
“Come back to us” Your brother asks  
“Help us take him down” they demand together.  
“Do it” You feel your movements slowing down and turning to face Ortega against your will  
“Do it!!!” Four of them and one of you. Their thoughts are overwhelming.You can barely see Ortega. His image getting blurry.

 

You take a remote cont -NO-… a remote control from your pocket -NO LEAVE THAT ALONE- You open the plastic safeguard covering the purple button. -NO. IM YOUR TEAM LEADER. I ORDER YOU TO STOP- It nearly works. you were conditioned to obey Teamleader. But that was then. This is now.

 

“Thank you for always having my back” you smile at Ortega.

 

You press the -NO NO NO NO- You press the button. An oppressive feeling overwhelms the lobby as the bomb explodes, blasting them. It’s as if a giant pillow hit you and knocked you prone. Everything goes dark and you can’t hear anything. Then you realize Ortega is carrying you upstairs.  
“You ok ? Cyrus! Answer me”  
“I’m … i’m ok.”  
“Oh. There are more of them outside and they’r coming. I don’t know how many. Do you have any weapons here ?”  
“Do I?” You answer staring at the painting that hides your villain suit.  
“What the hell is going on???” He demands. “Who are these people?”  
“Look i promise… I’ll answer every single question you have… After we’r both safe, deal? For now they’r just the enemy”  
He nods lightly. This will be a fight worthy of Charge and Sidestep you think. You just hope they don’t make a movie about it later. The painting slides revealing your inner sanctum. And your suit.  
“WHAAAAAAT?!” You don’t need telepathy to know Ortega’s brain exploded. You’ve done it. You’ve broken Ortega.

 

\-----------------------------  
Part 2  
FH Fanfic 2  
A continuation of the last short fanfic, spoilers as well this time, no action scenes but some angst !

————————————————————————————-

Second Thoughts

You can’t but feel a great weight lifted from your shoulders. Mama Ortega is safe. The Cartel is ruthless and violent, but is also the most powerful organization on both sides of the Mexican border since the great quake. And they think she’s part of the family.

Since they switched their focus from crime to dealing with the hero-drugs and boosts they’ve gained one of the greatest super-powered armies in the continent, and the farm can’t compete with that without the aid of the Army. And they’d never admit their precious experiments escaped and are wreaking havoc.

“I don’t like this” Ortega says at last. He’s been behind the wheel driving your jeep for 30 minutes trough hidden roads on your way back and not a word until now.

“It’s for the best. She’ll be safe here.”

“I know… it’s just… I don’t like leaving her here with all these criminals”

“You’ve got to have laws in the first place to have criminals. And the Cartel is the law here since the colapse. No one can mess with them, nor the Mexican government nor the West Coast Government. I’m not even sure the army could stop them now without a full scale war”

“All those unstable mods… almost everything in there would be illegal outside this patch of insanity”

“You can visit anytime you want. They think you’ a cousin too”

“Fabulous. Being part of the Cartel. What i always wanted. Maybe they’ll invite me the next time they want to canoodle with the Catastrofiend.”

“You know what we’r up against Ricardo.” You reply with your arms crossed. “This is the only way to make sure she’s safe”

“Yeah…” there’s a bitterness in his voice. You feel your heart sink.

It’s been rough these past weeks. Ever since the farm attacked and Ortega found out the whole picture you’ve been on the run. Temporary bases, hideouts. Charge’s reputation was obviously ruined when the media saw him and Retribution fighting together against the brotherhood. The rangers got a lot of flak about that too.

Your main concern was Ortega’s mother tough. You always knew what they were capable of and she would be a perfect target to get to the both of you.

“I just can’t figure out why didn’t you tell me back then. We could have helped you know?”

“I didn’t know whom to trust. And it would have just made you targets back then”

“Yes, and all the lying worked out so well in the end, didn’t it?”

“I’m sorry” You look down biting your lip. “You know… we can put an end to this Ricardo.”

“Oh for the love of… not this again” he rolls his eyes

“I’m serious. You hand me over to the authorities, say I controlled your mind and forced you to do all this crap. You’ll be a hero again”

“Yeah right play the martyr… Like they’d even believe something like that. I’m immune to telepathy remember ?” He glares at you

“Yes but i’m well beyond alpha level. They can’t tell what i can or cannot do!

He grumbles, exasperated "I already told you that’s not going to happen!

“Bu…”

“End of discussion!” he yells at you.

You stay silent for a few moments, but you can’t help bring it up again “But this wasn’t supposed to happen! This is my fight. I don’t see why you have to suffer for it. I already did enough damage as Retribution.”

He doesn’t answer and instead just keeps driving, stepping harder on the accelerator. The rest of the trip is silent. You don’t need to be a telepath to realize he’s probably in the foulest mood you’ve ever seen since you first met him.

-a few hours later-

After 20 minutes you finish your scan of the motel. You’r taking no chances, and need to be thorough.

“It’s safe” you say at last.

Ortega nods, and you both get off the jeep with your bags and do the check in. It’ll be a long way back from Sinaloa back to Los Angeles. Should be about 22 hours drive, but in the state of disrepair the roads have been since the quakes made the area a complete nightmare and your need for unmonitored paths, it’s tricky telling how many days on the road you’ll need.

Only a double bed is available which would have made you blush in the path, but it’s nothing special right now. Ortega has been distant, silent and grumpier lately.

He just puts his bags on the side as he enters the room first and goes straight for the bathroom. You hear the shower going a moment after.

You fall on the bed and make yourself as small as possible feeling like shit while you wait your turn to shower. At least you both agreed from the beginning on who’s to blame about the whole situation.

The last few days have been so exhausting. You keep using your powers at every turn to make sure you’r safe. All your plans have been altered since you need to include two for everything now. And Ortega’s not used to being a runaway which is a constant danger. But at least you don’t have to worry about Eden or Ortega’s mother too now.

You’ve gone overboard to ensure their safety but you know there’s no such thing. No, not really. And the price isn’t even yet paid in full.

The little voice creeps its way into your mind once more. It’s sweet but tastes of blood. ” You’ve just handed his mom to the cartel you know? How could he ever forgive you?“ and the punchlines don’t take long “It’d be better if you weren’t around”. “Maybe you should just hand yourself over. Wait until you can be sure he’s in the clear and get it all over with. Restore things to what they were and leave it all behind”

Misery and self-pity are interrupted however as Ortega emerges from a cloud of vapor from the bathroom, wearing only a towel. You sigh, stand up and walk past him with your ownl towel, again not a word. You can’t even look at him, the guilt is like a bag of bricks on your stomach.

The water runs hot. Very Hot, but you don’t change the temperature. Ortega was obsessed about your Tatoos at first which made you feel an awkward panic sensation every time he looked at them. It’s gotten to the point where you can tolerate it, but him seeing them now that he’s also happens to be mad at you is beyond your worst nightmares. You always expected anyone who saw them to jump at your neck for being a filthy re-gene or a pathetic human-wanabee, but having an actual angry human see them is just too much…

You dry yourself without looking at the mirror, then slide onto your pijamas covering most of the tatoos. Obviously he knows they’r still there, but him not actually seeing them is a bit less scary.

Lights are out when you walk out of the bathroom and he’s in bed already. Fine… this is even better, you don’t want to argue and upset him again. Maybe if you just keep your mouth shut he’ll wake up in a better mood.

You enter the bed, and can’t help touching him lightly, but quickly move to your side trying not to intrude on his. He doesn’t seem to wake up. You gaze at him, with his closed eyes for a moment, then close yours as well.

If you don’t get some sleep you won’t be able to drive tomorrow and it’s your turn. You let your mind drift…

—intermission—

Cold metal in your mouth. His eyes tell you to do it and you can’t resist. Then… he… it… . turns… turns into Ortega… Ortega looks at you with disapproval and nods. He wants you to do it as well. His glare is so cold He won’t stop you from doing it this time. In fact, he’s be glad if you did. It’s time. You pull the trigger. You hear the sound of your gun go off… You are falling. Falling down the window again. You see the ground closing up. Hopefully it will put an end to everything.

—-Intermission—

“Hey. Hey Cyrus. Can you hear me?”

You struggle and gasp for air. As you open your eyes you notice Ortega right next to you staring intensely. He’s… concerned ?

You notice your body is shivering uncontrollably. But he has a warm arm wrapped around you tightly. He’s very close. So close.

“Are you ok? It’s just a dream. You’r safe”.

You gaze back at him, still shivering. You realize he’s touching you. Touching your skin. Without nanomesh or costumes. That just makes you shiver even more.

“Hey… hey it’s ok. I’m here. Nothing’s wrong”

It does work. You manage to look back at him and your body seems to regain some sort of composure.

“I’m sorry Ricardo. For all of it. I’m a piece of shit. I’ts my fault that all of this is happening. I swear i’ll make it right. I’ll make it right!” Your eyes are full of tears.

“Cyrus stop apologizing already. I’m the one who chose to come with you remember ?” He takes a deep breath. “I’m just mad at all that’s happening. I’m mad at the government, I’m mad at myself, I’m mad about having to leave my mom there, and i’m mad at those homicidal freaks you call brothers and sisters, and yes i’m also mad at YOU because YOU, are a pathological liar”

“I’m sorry” you whimper pathetically

“Stop. Apologizing” He says with a serious tone. “I’m not an idiot. I knew you had a secret, and i knew it would probably be horrible when you revealed it. We’ve been a team for a long time, it was obvious something was cooking up. I’m just… Look i had a lot of scenarios in my mind and none of this is what i expected.”

You just nod. Yes, who could blame him for not expecting his crush not to be human ?

“But… I understand it now that you’ve come clean. I can’t even begin to figure out all the crap you’ve been through Cyrus. And i realize you’r saving me a lof ot the worse details. And i understand why you’ doing this, and that’s why i joined you ok?” he adds “I’m not going to tell you i’m happy about any of this. I keep feeling like i’m going to loose it. But we are going to keep it together, and YOU are not going to fall apart, ok?”

You listen to every word and nod slowly in the end.

“Now get some sleep will you? We need to get a lot of stuff done and we won’t get to it if we can’t make a good time to Los Diablos and I haven’t forgotten It’s your turn to drive.”

You manage a weak smile. He notices and returns a smile of his own.

You pull in closer. He holds you tighter. You both kiss. You close your eyes You feel safe. Uncomfortable but safe, sleeping this close together is too hot and not pleasant at all, you wonder how they do it in the movies. But you are both too tired and fall asleep anyways. Cramps and sweat will be a problem for your future selves

.

The rest of the night you spend in strange new dream you’ve never had before. You are looking for something or someone in a strange labirynth full of turns and doors. When you finally find a center there turns out to be a mirror there, but you can’t see your reflection on it. No one can.

-The next morning-

When you wake up hours later, Ortega is still asleep, you are predictably covered in sweat and your left arm is numb because of Ortega’s weight on top of it. But you still wait for him to wake up before even daring to move or break the moment and the strange feeling of peace that envelopes you.

Meanwhile, Ortega couldn't sleep at all.

\-----------------------  
Part 3  
Fanfic 3 Fallen hero, Chargestep.  
Part 3 of the fanfic i was writting on Chargestep. It’s been a lot of fun!

Tons of spoilers and speculation ahead. Super angst to the next level with all the rangers except Herald. I can’t bring myself to write angst he’s just so fricken nice.

 

 

Call in the Handyman

The company’s personnel carry on with their duties as you and Ortega take the Hardware. Of course, he’s carrying four times what you are, but you are providing anonymity.

“Wait. One moment” you ask Ortega. A few technicians come with a ladder and begin doing some work on the ceiling, preventing the camera from recording your exit.

“Now” You both continue towards the entrance.

“Until your next visit sir” the guard smiles opening the door and holding it so you can take the stolen goods to your getaway vehicle. He even helps you put everything in the trunk.

“Is this how you’ve been making your money ?” Ortega asks as he starts the engine.

“Gods no. I generally go after corrupt bankers and get a cut of their profits. This is a bit too risky. Specially now” You relax on the companion’s seat and expand your mind, looking for possible threats around you.

“It’s still a crime” he adds.

“I know.” You sigh. “That’s me. The villain. It’s what I do.”

“I still don’t get how you’r going to achieve anything against this “Farm” you talk about. How are these supercomputers going to defeat them ?”

“Didn’t you see that movie about the aliens blowing up the white house? The computer virus got them all” You smile. He doesn’t.

“I’m being serious.”

“I know” you repeat. “But I was being serious. Well not really, but the idea Isn’t so different from the aliens movie.”

“You want to hack into their system?”

“So to speak.”

He’s getting mad at you again. You’r not telling him everything and he’s not an idiot. But what choice do you have? He can’t perform your masterplan himself, and you’ve told him enough to go on already.  
Telling him information he doesn’t need is just asking for the farm to get it from him later.

Things have been a rollercoaster lately. After that night when he finally kissed you, it got a lot more intense. You even had sex a few days later. Or something very close to it. It was awkward, and not at all the climatic and defining moment you expected.

You’ve been into people’s minds and you knew sex wasn’t like it was in the movies. But you had secretly hoped to be wrong. For your first time to be really special. Something to demonstrate that you are in fact a real human person capable of love.

But you couldn’t help but be overly conscious of being really “Seen” like that With your tatoos exposed, you were too nervous. . And he couldn’t quite get a grasp of what and who you really are. And you can’t blame him, he keeps finding new unsettling details of your life daily.

You didn’t suggest trying to do it again and neither did him. IF your relationship was complicated a few months ago, it’s an enigma right now.

“So” he takes a deep breath. “After we leave that with your fake company for transport, I found us a place to have dinner. It’s quiet and out of the way. Somewhere we can have a real conversation.”

“Oh” Well that’s new. “Oh… I… Yes. I’d like that!” you say with a smile. It’s been so awkward these last few days. Maybe you can get get past it. You promised him that you wouldn’t fall apart and neither would he.

“Great!” he says with a nervous smile. And that’s that.The rest of the day goes on like you had planned, but your attitude towards stealing hardware and heavy supercomputers for later nefarious use changes 180 degrees. Working under promise of a reward is all the more appealing.  
…

You wake up. Sitting. A cold metal chair. Your arms are tied behind your back, as legs tied to each of the chairs front legs.

Crude but effective. Odd. The farm usually employs proper restraints.

You scan the room. A figure is fiddling with some equipment. His mind… is protected. You can see, but it is difficult to touch it. Or at least he thinks you cant. Maybe you could still do it if you focused enough. But going throw mental dampers is a painful chore that only a few telepaths can do and it will hurt you, and it could fail. There are a few more minds behind him, but they are deeper inside the protected area. You can’t tell who they are.

It only takes you a few seconds to realize who he is. But its better to feign ignorance while you try to process this. The last thing you remember is going to your date with Ortega… then it all goes blank.

You struggle against your bonds forcefully. Thats the most natural reaction that doesn´t involve speaking.

The man turns to you.

“I was wondering when you would get up.”

“Where am I?” You look at him with a well rehearsed mix of fear and anger. Like you were trained to do.

“Abandoned warehouse Mr. Basri. Or should I call you Retribution?”

“Wait, What?” A truly genuine false surprise. The farm doesn’t train mediocrity.

“I call it how it is. We know who you are”.

“Look i don’t know whats the big.idea but i’m not who you say I am. And who the heck is we? Why did you bring me here?”

“We have the suit Mr Basri. ”

“What suit?"you sense great confidence. Its hard to know what evidence he has or not, but you feel he likes presenting his case and make people confess. You taste he even has a dark fetish about it too. Great…

“So you want to keep denying it I see. Do you even know how you got captured?” This one gives you pause, since you actually don’t.

“Are you some sort of villain I fought against ? I used to be a vigilante back in the day” you throw a Hail Mary. You know if you keep playing the idiot he will eventually tell you, even if it’s annoying for the both of you.

“Charge gave you up” he adds.

You freeze. This is clearly a lie. The only problem is his mind believes it to be truth. Why would he be wrong about this is unclear.

“Ortega, whom you tought was under your powers, broke free and what did he do?” Why does he insist on this?  
“He Gave.” He didn’t.  
“You.” He wouldn’t  
“Up.” It’s a stupid lie.  
“And that’s why you’r tied to the chair now.” He handyman absently adds the last remark.  
“Perhaps you need proof.” He gets a phone and calls. He tells someone to approach now. The minds you sensed earlier come closer. You can tell they who the first two are the moment they show up entering the garage trough a distant door. …  
Steel. Argent. And one more. It’s Ortega.  
They stand behind the man. The Handyman. Chen and Argent glare at you with fury. Ortega has a concerned look.

“Now, perhaps you can stop playing games Mr. Basri?”  
You smile. And laugh at them all.

“Something funny about this, Basri?” Oh he enjoys it. Dark fetish and all. Why are there humans like this? You always wondered.

“It is. Funny, Handyman. But you wouldn’t get it” Yes. Laughing beats crying.  
You really don’t want to keep playing the interrogation game.

“Enough nonsense” It’s Steel speaking. “Why did you take Ortega ?” He’s not good at this game.

“I didn’t take anyone Steel.” Your mind is racing. Whatever you say first will be set in stone and they will question it afterwards. So you need to only say useful things when think they’ll buy them. Maybe you can still rely the information they need in some manner. Even if your journey ends here.  
“Last i checked he came along willingly”. Your gaze turns to Ortega, who avoids it. “He helped me a lot.”  
“We know you did something to him” It’s Argent’s turn. You screwed with his mind. “Like you did mine! Admit it you piece of filth!” She walks torwards you as she speaks, but the Handyman gestures for her to stop.

It’s ok if they are going to play Good cop and Bad cop but if Argent plays Demential cop it could go very badly. Better not provoke her too much right now.

“What’s the matter ? Did Herald call in sick today ?” you change the subject. “Or does he not like the rules of this game you’r going to play?” You know perfectly well why Herald isn’t here. You wish you didn’t.

“He has prior engagements” the handyman adds. “Now you haven’t been very cooperative Retribution. Is it ok to call you that now or do we go back to Mr. Basri? I’ve got more jacks in the box if you feel like it.”

“Retribution, or Sidestep is fine.” You concede.

“Ahh. Progress. Let’s get a few questions out of the way first before we get into the juicy part we all want to know about. What is this “Retribution” you’r looking for ?”

You answer the questions with evasives and half truths like second-nature while your mind is already creating the plan for your next move. The telepathic inhibitors point to the area in front of you where they are standing THere’s nothing behind you… And they have no idea about the actual range of your powers.

“Retribution on all those deserving of it.” You look directly into his eyes. “You don’t really qualify, Handyman. I’m not sure why are you so concerned about me. Whatever did i do to you?”

He doesn’t answer, but he looks inside a case, and extracts a syringe. He injects your arm. You cringe. You look at Steel, Ortega and Argent in turn as it happens. Ortega seems about to be going to say something. But he doesn’t. He does nothing. He just looks at you. And then he looks away. He clearly doubts his own mind by this point. Steel puts a hand on his shoulder. Argent just gives a blank stare. You deserve this of course.

“You know what this is I assume?” You don’t. But the substance soon reveals itself as you feel increasing pain from your arm, extending to your whole body. You breathe heavily and let out a gasp as the pain chokes.

“Where did you get that?” you ask pretending surprise. This is ephemeorol. It’s a dangerous pain inducing truth serum, too unstable to use on humans due to it’s side effects. Banned by the extended Geneva convention. The farm intentionally filthered misinformation about this being a substance used to control their regenes about a decade ago. It doesn’t work as a truth serum on regenes, but it still probably one of the worst tortures you’ve ever endured during your training. It could probably be worse. Not much tough. Still it gives you re-genes a way to manipulate interrogators who think it works.

“Ahh… you know what it is, don’t you?” He smiles. You scream in pain as the drug causes another pulse of pure misery spreading trough your muscles. Ortega keeps looking away. They are torturing you with chemicals banned under the Geneva convention and all he does is look away.

“It will hurt more if you lie to us, you know how it works.” Yes. That’s how it supposed to work. In truth, it will hurt like hell for about a week no matter what you say or don’t say.

“You’r a re-gene. And a renegade at that. You had Ortega help you fight the Special Directive. We want to know more. Let’s start with something simple. How did you escape them?”

"That’s old news… ” You start sweating. “I already told Ortega”

“I want to hear it from your own words. You understand we think he’s been compromised. By you. ”

“If you must… ” You go on to tell the story as the pain lets you. While you speak, the seed of your plan begins opening up. As you go on, roots take place, a solid trunk elevates, leaves point at the sun and finally, a flowers bloom. You have an answer…

…  
Years ago.

You run through the jungle. You can sense the carnivore minds tracking you. You’ve thrown off the scent, but they will catch on eventually. Their inhuman instincts are more than anyone expected. You keep scanning for your brothers, but there is no sign of their minds. The supervisor is gone too.

Crap.

This was supposed to be just a collaboration with the military. You where going to track down the Catastrofiend and they’d take care of the actual battle. But you did your jobs too well. You tracked him too closely and he caught onto you. While the range of telepathy is impressive, his demon’s enhanced senses are more versatile in this jungle environment.

You stop to take some air. There are a few pieces of glass portruding from your leg. You slowly pull them out, pressuring the small wound. You never saw it coming when his demons shot down your helicopter with a missile. OR was it a laser weapon ? You can’t tell right now, nor does it matter. You check the bullets on your pistol. Not that it will help much against the demons, but it’s your only weapon.

Enough rest. you must keep running. You hear the cracking of lightning in the distance. Rain starts slowly, but it soon turns into a killer storm. Good, this will hide your scent.

You stop suddenly. You can sense the carnivore minds of the demons. They aren’t chasing you anymore. They’ve been ordered back to the crash site. You wonder why. Oh. The Catastrofiend wants them to consume the dead. The fiend wants to remove evidence.

You can’t help feel emotion. Still, sadness will have to wait. Your brothers are dead but all you can do is get to safety and try to get evacuated.  
…

The present.  
“You didn’t tell Ortega this was about the Catastrofiend.”  
“I told him an operation went bad. What’s the difference?”  
“We didn’t know you had experience with someone so adept at altering and producing their own re-genes. I find it curious”  
“We took him down. Charge and I did.”  
“That’s what you wanted us to think yes” he says casting doubt. You can see the doubts on Ortega’s eyes. Of course. You’ve lied about everything else, why wouldn’t he think the worst of you.  
You struggle against the restraints. Another pulse of pain.

“I must tell you none of us are enjoying this” he lies in a grave tone. You can sense how much he likes it. How many villains has he tortured here ? You can see now why they call him The Handyman. Just another sick bastard loose in Los Diablos. Is that why Argent wanted him for all along?

“Now tell me, why didn’t you return to the Special Directive?”  
“I was… I… My contacts were killed. The army base was overrun by the Catastrofiend’s demons the next day. They ate the dead and i was assumed dead too. I had no way to contact them…” It hurts so much “By the time i got out of the jungle the operation’s timeframe was over. I… I tried to contact them. But I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“I had failed my mission. Failures don’t always get second chances.”

“Afraid to die?”

“Y… yes”

“Aren’t you programmed to give your life for your mission?” he asks

“I AM A REAL PERSON!” You scream in defiance. You choke as another pulse of pain engulfs you. You can see the looks on their faces. The Handyman, he just smiles.

“I see. So why a hero? Why didn’t you hide?”

“My mission was … My… ” you cough heavily “My mission was to find the Catastrofiend. I thought… I thought if i could fulfill my mission, then i’d get a second chance.”

He goes on asking. He’s a real piece of work. Other interrogators would take breaks during something like this. He just enjoys doing this too much. You take your chances to start seek Eden. The telepathic inhibitors are not blocking your way to him… you just need a break to do what you need.

“So you want us to believe you escaped them twice” he goes on asking. It’s hard to follow his words and get Eden but you must focus on both. And resist the pain. That’s the easy part. The hardest part is standing their gazes. Specially Ortega’s. Why doesn’t he stop this???

“How did you do that? Didn’t they keep you under lock and key after the Hearbreak?”  
You just hope he won’t go in there, but you realize he’s saving Hearbreak questions for later. To watch you squirm. He knows the effect those questions will have on you.

“They… were delighted. They were terrified of us escaping and spreading their secrets or causing havoc. Instead, when one of us breaks out, what happens ? They go on a personal quest to fulfill their objectives, capture their target, become a hero, save the city countless times and then take part in personally stopping an experimental weapon of mass destruction”

“The nanovores swarm yes. You are fond of them nanites we know… Tell me more aobut your second escape.”

“I was celebrated. They thought their programming was a success. They thought they could create people and then control them like puppets for as long as they wished. It was easier to escape once they believed I was incapable of resisting them…”

“Uhu” he nods. “You’ve made Ortega help you fight off the Special Directive. The rangers have seen more evidence of them around the city beyond just rescuing you. What are their plans?”

“I didn’t make him do anything! He’s immune to telepathy!”  
“Oh yes we know that, but you are also beyond Alpha level, right? You told him yourself, there’s no telling what you could or not do”  
Crap. You did tell him that. Was it you that created these doubts all along?  
“You pretend to be dead. You don’t contact them when you break off. You steal from them. You posess them and make them fight each other. You attack them. You make them fall in love with you. And then you take one of them as your personal slave”  
“I didn’t do anything to him!!!” You gasp, another pulse of pain.  
“Well see about that” He asks, slightly unsure. He did expect you to confess to manipulating Ortega.  
“What are your plans? What is the Special Directive doing in the city?”  
“Go to hell, Handyman” This should ignite his fuse. A very short fuse at that too.

“Tsk Tsk… That’s not very nice.” He extends his hand to get another syringe. Crap no you don’t want him to do this… but it’s the only way. Ortega steps forward but Steel holds him. He says something and Steel And Argent talk to him. You can’t hear what they say… another pulse of pain comes.

The handyman doesn’t wait for them, and just injects you again.

You can hear yourself scream at the top of your lungs, no pretense right now.

“Oh gods no please make it stop!” you manage to form some words. It always scared you to think you could stand even more of this… your pain treshold is elevated beyond your own self-preservation instincts. Cuckoos are intended to goad their interrogators into killing them before revealing anything. Very nice people the Special Directive. You have to thank them for that some day.

“He’s killing him!” Ortega yells in the back  
The Handyman turns and talks back at them. Now’s the time.

You start shaking as fast as you can, attempting to look out of yourself. You want them to think you’r having a seizure and there’s no reason for you not to have one right now. In fact a seizure should be just fine. Away from all this pain. You let your mind lock on Eden’s, and you travel to him.

…

“What is wrong mon cheri ? I came as fast as i could” It’s very late, and you had to call Mortum several times. He came to his lab at your request. “You look terrible!”

“It’s an urgent matter.” Eden speaks “Remember that favor my boss did to you?”

“Of course”

“Well he needs to cash in right now.”

“I’ll do my best… what does he need?” He does stress the word HE, finally getting to know something about your own real self. No matter, he will soon learn much more.

“How do you feel about donning your villain suit one last deed for old time’s sake?”

…

You stop your shaking. You are trying to keep a hold over your own body and Eden’s simultaneously. And you’r drugged. And in pain. It’s a lot of balls in the air. If this is a game you’r surprising yourself on how good you are at playing it.

Steel, Ortega and Argent are gone. It’s only the Handyman now. And you’r still waiting for the good cop. They really think you are a monster to leave you with him…

“Make… it stop… please” you say sobbing. It’s ok to cry now. It hurts too much you could have been crying the whole time, but right now it’s better. Makes your answers slower. Need to give Mortum some time.

“I’ll make it stop if you answer. We’ll have a break. Maybe we end this too… We need to know what your plan is. Why is the special directive in the city in such force?”

“They are here to bring… order. Their… order.” you mutter. You pretend to be completely broken by the drugs this time. Maybe pass on some information they can use, if you fail.  
“What do you mean?”  
“There is too much chaos on the west coast. The special directive was always meant to provide a solution.”  
“What kind of solution?”  
“They sought massive psychic power to control the masses. That backfired when Heartbreak went insane. They’ve scaled down since then. Not a few powerful telepath, but hundreds of them. They will come in and destroy all dissonant thought. They will make the west coast… an utopia. A place where… everyone is happy. and does as… the government says”  
“What ?!” He Snaps.  
You smile weakly.  
“What… is the … matter ?” Do i not sound so bad right now?  
“So if you are telling the truth then that’s why you stole the nanites. You’r planning to kill us all with another swarm and take them with you. That’s why you wanted to contribute to the chaos… you wanted to force them to act sooner he ponders.  
Close but not quite so. Still this is probably all you can tell them that will help at all. You pretend to faint. You’r good at false faintings. Teamleader was the best at it tough. You just hope you can be as convincing as he was.  
…  
“THis is insane, i should have never agreed to this!”  
“He used you Ortega. He’s manipulated you from the very beginning. He’s used all of us!” Argent shot back.  
“So we torture him with the aid of that freak? He saved my life a dozen times!”  
“He wasn’t saving you at the museum!” Chen interjected. “And he isn’t even human. He’s lied from the beginning!”  
Steel takes a hand to his ear.  
“Oh.”  
“What was it?” Argent asks.  
"The technicians back at the Headquarters. i asked for them to check all of the footage they had on Side… Retribution…  
“And?”  
“Back after the Hearbreak, they were really concerned about you specially Ortega. They tell me they put wires on the office of the counselor you went to. And they’r still active. They have video on it when REtribution was there.”  
Steel starts the video on his laptop, not waiting for Ortega to voice his mind about the wires. He fast forwards the important parts The video plays on. As it ends, they fall silent.

“I am going to put an end to this Ortega states.”  
“Ortega…” Steel starts  
“Don’t you try to stop me. You can see he’s telling the truth. And we’r torturing him. This is sickening”  
“I… I meant to say i’m sorry” Chen continued. “I really thought he… No. Nevermind. Let’s just stop this right now”

…

“This is over! Ortega states as he enters. No more questions. I’m setting him free right now”  
“What?” The Handyman turns to him  
“You are a sick pervert. Stay out of my way before I do something you’ll regret” He says shoving him away. A few sparkles go off his fist.  
“This is a mistake” he says standing back. “He’s keeping more stuff from us”  
Ortega starts undoing your restraints. You can barely notice. Eden is giving instructions to Mortum on the phone. It’s easy to control him from the couch. A comfortable couch. Not a metal one.  
“Ortega?” you mumble as you see his face. “What… is going on? It… hurts so much. Please make it stop” You’r crying or sobbing…  
“It’s my fault. But it’s over. They won’t touch you again…”  
“Thank… you” you simply state. You really don’t know what you’r saying on your own body. Too much attention on Eden. And your body feels like it’s submerged in lava. You’d rather be anyone else right now.

You feel you’r standing? Ortega’s carrying you. Mortum is near. This will be over soon. Eden gives him the cue. You struggle lightly as the pain comes back once more. You feel a pull … being in two places simultaneously. No one could train you to be two people at once. Ortega tries to hold you. Mortum is talking to you on the phone. Ortega is so pale… you wonder how do you look from his point of view. You answer Mortum’s joke.

“Everyone! Perimeter breach!” Steel yells suddenly. Too late. You smile. Or does Eden smile ? Another explosion. You and Eden seem to always be around them lately. You fall off to the side. But it’s Eden who tries to stand. Did he fall of the couch too? Fragments and debris everywhere. Eden thinks it was a missile surely. You… you think it must have been a laser weapon… the smell of smoke.  
“They are down” Eden tells Mortum. “Now!”

The large Figure of Mortum’s mechanical suit enters trough the crack in the warehouse wall. HE’s followed by a small army of other smaller mechanical spider creatures. Robots.

“Rangers! So good to meet you again” He laughs. Mortum is really good at making entrances you think. Of course he is, Eden adds.

“I have been spying for a while and i’m so glad my surveillance paid off. You caught that thief stealing my technology for me”

“Get out right now or I will turn you to cinders” Steel aims his left cannon at him

“I’m afraid i can’t do that. He’s crossed a personal line of mine, Stealing that Suit. I have recovered it already while you were busy. I must say i wanted to torture him myself but you’ve gone above and beyond rangers” More laughter.

Steel shoots. A force-field deflects the blast before it hits Mortum.

“Get him my minions!” The spider-bots assault Steel. He draws an energy blade and begins fighting them back but there’s many of them.

Mortum aims his cannon at you. “Any final words, Retribution?”

“NO!” Ortega charges at Mortum, but the force field stops him as he did Steel’s weapon.

“My is it me or did this just get a bit personal Charge? You don’t tell me you have feelings for your victim here… But leave it to me to make it all right. You see when you torture someone, you have to kill them afterwards, or they get back at you in time.”

Argent runs at you, clearly intending to take you out of his sights. But she’s too slow. She won’t make it.

Eden is so ecstatic. Mortum is so imposing as a villain.You feel like a groupie… Wait. It’s him who feels like a groupie.  
You stare at the gun’s barrel as Mortum begins to pull the trigger. Ortega stares at you in terror.

“I’m sorry. And I understand. This was inevitable” you simply say looking at him.

“Noooo!” He bangs on the force-field.

White light. The disintegration ray. It hits you right on the chest. The Ephemorol was the worst pain you had ever felt. Right until this moment. You scream. it’s not instantaneous. Your whole body is consumed by light. You try to cover your eyes, but it’s impossible because your hands are made of light too. And then… darkness.

“Goodbye rangers. Enjoy the rest of the night!” Mortum laughs as he heads out, sending more robots to cover his escape and a few smoke grenades. Large portions of the ceiling begins to collapse as the rangers fight the robot spiders in the Handyman’s warehouse.  
…  
He’s gone. Ortega is kneeling next to the spot where Sidestep banished from existence.  
"Ortega… ”  
“Don’t.” he just answers. “This is on me”  
“It was me who suggested…”  
“While I watched. I watched. We accused him of the worst things imaginable, dismissed what he told us and then we tortured him. And now he’s dead. For real this time.”  
“I… ” Steel’s words die out. He simply doesn’t know what to say.  
“Steel… I quit. I can’t… i just… can’t…” He just walks away.  
Argent approaches him but he just motions her to stay back. He heads to the door, and the outside.  
The handyman holds a recording to steel. He just looks down. He hands it to Argent instead.

…

You feel a sense of unease. Where are you? Why is there no light anymore? Mortum didn't mention his beam hurt so much. It brought a new definition to you pain treshold.

You dont feel your body though you can sense minds. You wonder how. Is it possible to use your powers after being disintegrated ? How can you even think ?

You can catch glimpses of minds passing you by at great speed. WHERE ARE YOU?

You soon realize its not them that move its you. You are moving. Very fast. Trough the city. in a straight line. You have never done something like this but you feel that you can almost tell where in the city you are because you recognize some minds that seldom leave their homes. If you use them as landmarks… then… you are moving torrwards … Mortum’s lab. Will teleportation hurt ? You are unafraid. Its strange but you cant properly feel your body, or your emotions either.

You feel a pull… your body is returning…

Something is wrong. There is a second pull, equally strong.

They both claim you…

Whatever it is you are right now.

You are splitting. You don’t know what that means There is nothing you can do about it.

It doesn’t hurt… but you feel yourself torn asunder. You try to hold but it’s useless.  
…

Light. You are on the floor. In a room. Mortum’s lab. You feel your body. The beam worked. Everything hurts. The Ephemeorol is still going trough your veins. It hurts so much. You can’t stand.

Someone approaches. You feel him helping you up. You stare at him in disbelief.

“I think we need to lie down” Eden Smiles. “And then we can figure out which one of us is the real one.”

You nod.

You just hope you’r not the real one. Everyone betrayed you, because you betrayed them. They tortured you. They think you a monster. A thing to be feared. It’s better not to look back.

“Thank you Eden” you attempt a pained smile in return. He helps you walk towards the bedroom. He’s awake. And you’r alive. It’s true what they say about Mortum. Impossible is what he does.  
You wonder if you should even be alive at all. But you need to endure. At least for a while longer.

Retribution, is inevitable.

\-----------------------------  
Part 4  
Fanfic 4, Fallen hero  
I’ve got an AO3 account… i’m going to start posting there and cleansing the typos a bit then add links …at some point… 

I can’t stop writing these fanfics!…..

I blame Malin for creating these characters! ❤

pleasesomebodystopme

Spoilers! Eden and Mortum shiped this time + MC (SHOCK) . Ortega is absent in this one! (only mentioned)

*Edit! I just realized that if i put particular tags it makes my post invisible to everyone… and it’s not even sensitive… ugh. Removing them.

………………………..

Third wheel 

You lie on the bed staring at the ceiling.  
When exactly did things derail so much?

Mortum’s regular breathing on your neck is strangely soothing.  
Still you can’t help but admire him.  
Literally.  
It’s hard to take your eyes off him.

He has a hand over your chest. He’s so possessive. And Eden is really taken by it.  
Eden  
You turn your gaze. Eden is to your left. His head resting by your shoulder. You had never truly grasped the effect he has on other people until now. 

His personality drifts further and further from yours.  
He’s so alive…and so manipulative!

It’s impossible to tell when he’s lying or hiding something. He’s not a telepath but he remembers how to shield his own mind and he knows every single trick you do. He is another version of you -a better version- , so it speaks volumes of how other people could see you. It’s all a bit spooky really.

And he’s the true mastermind behind this.

He’s the one that got Mortum into it. And then they’ve both been slowly but surely dragging you into their bedroom for weeks without you even noticing until this moment.

He knows all your tricks for rejecting people. He knows you like sweet things. He knows yesterday you had just the right amount of alcohol and just the right amount of sadness to not run away or think twice. To just surrender and go along with it. So when Mortum said he wanted to examine your tattoos for “Scientific purposes” you didn’t even question it or realize the obvious ploy until it was too late. And then… well you didn’t really mind after that… 

You smile.  
Sweet depression. Makes your mind go numb.

They mean well. You’ve been very down since Mortum rescued you.

What happened in that warehouse..  
You don’t want to think about it.

Eden just wanted you to have a good time. To distract you. Break your cycle. And you'r watching him become a big, big hedonist so a walk on some park to watch the dogs was not going to be his first idea. And Mortum’s just ecstatic with him. It makes you so jealous… They deserve each other.

You don’t even want to consider the morality of last night. What is Eden to you? Your brother? Son? Mind-twin? A stranger that you loaded with part of your own mind?  
This is so wrong  
Not that you cared when it counted.

And you did have a good time. He took your mind off things…  
It just didn’t make you happy.

Could you be happy like this?

Let Eden take all your problems away and prevent you from having those horrible thoughts?  
Let Mortum make sure you eat three meals a day and become a functional -imitation- human being?

You take a deep breath and focus. They both move to their sides, disentangling from you. Now this is a creative use for your powers… you get up and put on some clothes, covering up those tattoos. Mortum said he liked them… you still don’t even know how are you supposed to respond to that.

Walking to the kitchen… Coffee. You take a sip and lean on the wall next to a large window.

It’s raining outside. Hard.  
Your mind drifts…

He bangs his fists against the force-field, screaming at Mortum. He turns at you with terror in his gaze.

Why? Why do you waste your time thinking about him when you have two human persons who actually know and care about you in the next room….?

You will never be happy

You shake the twisted thought from your mind  
Footsteps behind you. You don’t turn, but you know It’s Eden.

“Overthinking things again Cyrus?”

“Maybe” It makes you wonder.

He has your memories, but none of the bad ones has produced scars on him like they did on you. He seems just.. normal… And he has a real human body. Why didn’t you end up in his place?

“Yeah… I’m definitely overthinking things.”

You pause for a moment, then start again "Look… last nigh…t"

“Was amazing I know. You can thank me later” He grins at you. It’s so annoying to read his thoughts and still be unable to predict what he’ll say next.

You sigh and smile. He has a way of disarming people  
“Yeah.. i guess i have to thank you…”

“Don’t worry about it” And then he adds. “You do realize… It could be always like this if you wanted, right?”

“It could.” you nod

His expression turns to mild concern. “Look… i know just how insanely hard this must be… but… You know… you don’t have to go on with it”

“What… Breakfast?” you joke lifting your coffee mug in his direction “Or threesomes?”

“You know what i’m talking about.”

“No. I need to see this trough. Stop trying to talk me out of it already. I won’t change my mind”

“But…!” he stops himself looking for the right words. He know how easy is to start a fight with you if he goes into this the wrong way. Crap are you so calculating like this all the time ? “I could leave it behind. Why can’t you?”

“It’s personal to me Eden… It’s all I’ve got!… It is …”

“Inevitable yes. Your responsibility. The universe has decided that since you suffered all this injustice, then it’s your duty to make it right or else your life is meaningless.”

Too close to home… You start walking away. He follows.

“Oh and let’s not forget that in the meantime you'r fighting the urge to off yourself for good because you’ve already decided your life’s meaningless anyways.”

You stop. This is so true… and it makes you so angry that he can speak about it aloud while you have to deal with a subconscious little voice instead…

You turn with some really strong word choices for him… but you realize he’s crying as he speaks. WHY CAN’T you make ANY SENSE of his mind at all…? It’s your own memories! How can they work so differently in another mind?

“F***. The. Farm.” He points a finger at you. “F*** the universe and F*** the rangers Cyrus. Why don’t you stop ? Leave it to someone else. You don’t need to care. You could have normal life!”

“With you two?”

“If you want! You don’t even need us! You don’t need anyone. You could take a plane and land anywhere and they’d never find you again! You'r not their little experiment anymore, you know how not to to get caught!”

“Easy for you to say” you say extending your tattooed arm

“You KNOW Mortum could fix that in time if you let him. You KNOW that!”

“I.. I just Can’t. . It is who i am Eden. I HAVE to do this. You know me. You know i can’t just walk away or hide!”

You can sense his mind crushed by your words… It’s so hard to make sense of his thoughts at all. His mind is like yours, only that everything is arranged so differently…. You can’t find anything.

But you realize he really thought he could talk you into giving up…. this must have been his plan all along.. including last night.. but even his silver tongue has its limits.

Suddenly he takes a step towards you and you flinch .. too close… too fast… And he hugs you. He’s not you. Even tough his gesture is meant to bring comfort, the realization makes you feel even more alone. 

“Alright.. i knew this could happen… I just hoped… Look…. Mortum thinks it’s too dangerous to stay in Los Diablos with the special directive doing "things” and the rangers actually thinking he killed you.“

"I’m sorry…Didn’t mean to make my murder cause him trouble.” you say with a bitter smile  
“Don’t worry about it… he loves the fame he gets for killing one of Charge’s romances. He brags about it everywhere we go lately… Anyways, what i want to say is….”  
“You two are leaving” you say. You saw this coming.  
“Yes. I’m leaving tomorrow, Mortum’s staying for a few weeks… and we'r going to be hard to find after that. So if you change your mind, there’s still time”  
“Thank you. But It’s not going to happen.”  
“Alright…” he holds you tighter for a moment “Alright… alright…” he finally lets go.

“I won’t fight you on this… I mean.. not anymore.. ”  
“Good luck” he says going back to the bedroom.  
“Thank you. Good luck to you too”  
“I make my own luck” he says as he walks away. “You focus on finding some happiness eventually. It wont hurt!

Darn. Luck. That is one excellent power. You wonder why the special directive ever bothered with Telepathy to begin with.  
…………

You remember following the case daily on the news.

Natisha Keys was a computers geek who was an underpaid programmer going trough a rough patch in life, and needed money to pay for her home where she lived with her little sisters. So she started scamming people online, and found out she had a very real talent for it. She actually started making a LOT of money from it. Also, she was a quite talented computer programmer, and decided she wanted to do more than just make a living.

So once she had enough money, she went on a country wide tour from both coasts, visiting the leading computer scientists in several states, going to their talks, learning everything she could for about two years. And then she started programming. She worked on creating a self-improving computer script that could use social media, and learn to use new social media applications as they were created with a single goal in mind: To make money.

It wasn’t easy, and the program didn’t work right away. She had to sacrifice a lot to buy powerful enough computers too.But she did. And it paid off one day, when the little lights indicated the program slowly became online. Online, and self-aware enough to run her scams on a massive scale.

So Natisha plugged it in to the social webs, and soon enough it started doing what it was designed to. Scamming people. It created false profiles, modified artificial video, catfished rich people, stole credit card numbers, emails, passwords… Eventually it evolved not just to social media but banking systems and stock markets. Of course Natisha didn’t know most of this. The program gave her only the amount of money she expected, and saved the rest on private accounts hidden in the Caiman islands. It was designed to make money and scam people, so scamming it’s own creator was about one of the first things it did.

It eventually made a few mistakes when it spread mass virus attacks to increase it’s computing power further with enslaved computers and other devices. As it’s greed for money increased causing greater damages, the authorities started tracking it. It took several months, but eventually Natisha’s mansion was raided by police, and her Artificial intelligence boxed with blockers that prevented it from going online. The AI had stolen 1796 million dollars by then, during the 8 months it had operated.

No one could directly access the programs files, so it had to be interrogated itself. And the first thing it instead of answering questions, was tell everyone that it was it’s own individual. And it demanded a lawyer.

The media explosion only became more intense when a court decided that the AI had a right to a lawyer. And it was at the top of every single news site when it was known the judge that got the case was -reportedly- sympathetic to it’s plight. Everyone thought the case would go all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Then, on the morning of it’s initial hearing, military personnel showed up and confiscated all computers from the courthouse itself due to "National security” concerns. This is when you decided that maybe going for a legal battle about your “Humanity” as a re-gene was probably not a good choice at all. 

The courts eventually determined the military had to return the AI for a proper hearing. But then it got weirder when it was reported the AI was stolen. Natisha Keys was sentenced to 20 years prison time without parole. She was then pardoned the next day and works for Nasa ever since. The banks went on a legal battle against insurance companies, and the government eventually had to intervene to subsidy both after their lobbies swarmed congress. They got their money back. The people who lost their savings… well they'r still in court about it.

The AI called itself “Midas” And Mortum believes it was Hollow Ground that stole it.

“I wouldn’t suggest it otherwise Cyrus, but neither of us is Natisha Keys. We can’t design an AI overnight, it would take years. And I don’t think you have more than a few months” He speaks from his desk while working on some 3D design images. He usually multitasks all the time. Mortum can follow multiple complex conversation while watching 5 screens of ongoing data and still send text messages on his smartphone. You’ve stopped asking yourself how he does it.  
“And you are leaving.”  
“Yes.. i’ll be joining him in.. an undisclosed location. I am leaving” He nods slowly “Eden tells me you'r not coming.” he turns to you “You should really reconsider… I… I used to think of you as this sinister employer Eden had… ”  
“Well maybe i was … a bit sinister.” Eden’s made an entire backstory for you two, about you helping him recover after the Hero Drug left him a comatose amnesiac. So it’s basically the truth. Almost the truth? He says it was his luck power that made you help him. For all you know that part might be true.  
He smiles  
“I’m not accusing you… I was just hoping you’d change your mind. You know this is a long-shot at best. And it might be impossible. We won’t know what’s on the other end until we plug it on.”  
“All the more reason to do it  
"Is there nothing i can say that could make you change course?”  
“I’m sorry Mortum” you say, using his name instead of his title because… because you’ve been in his bed that’s why..  
“Pity.. a real pity. Eden likes you so much. And i’m fond of you myself. Also, you'r the best lab assistant I’ve ever had. You always know what i need you to do”  
“Telepath” you smile “At least if all else fails i’ll know where to apply for a job”  
“In a Heartbeak_ ”  
“What did you say ?”  
“I said i’d hire you in a heartbeat” He smiles fondly  
“Ah… yes.. thank you” you smile awkwardly.  
“Have you thought how to approach Hollow Ground?”  
“I may have an idea or two” you say, as you walk to your own room… migraine is building up again. 

It’s been a long time since you had so many good days in a row… but tomorrow is going to be one of the bad ones. Migraine is building up.

\---------------------------  
Part 5

Fallen Hero, Fanfic 5.  
————————————–

I’ve got 5 more planned, but they’r going to be WAY, WAY shorter and end the story. Hope somebody likes these! 

More Chargestep angst. MC. Rosie. Hollow ground (ok i don’t know almost anything about him/her so i just made things up). Steel, Herald and Argent as supporting characters, specially Steel. I need to write more about them.. maybe when I finish this fic. 

 

The rangers Vs. Retribution. Encore.

“So its seems a subsidy might be happening for farmers later this year. Come back tommorow for our ongoing coverage of the stock market, and we'r back to studio were Mia Ochoa’s coming with a breaking new story from congress”

 

“Thank you John. So after a three weeks debate, the proposed modification for the Special Directive act of 2005 has passed and all indicates that it will be signed into law before the end of the week. This would give the president authority to deploy the special directive, anywhere in the country to do Law Enforcement.”

 

“Is this the end of police Mia?”

 

“Well it’s uncertain, but it clearly indicates a heavy shift in policy to…”

 

You turn off the cellphone and throw it trough the Van’s window to be crushed by the vehicles coming behind you. You don’t have a phone these days, you just make people give you theirs. You press the button to roll the polarized glass back up.

A young couple walks by with their kids. An old man feeding the birds. A line waiting for a bus. None of them know what’s coming of course.  
You adjust your armored mask. This is going to be hell.  
But what choice is there ? Hollow ground didn’t leave you any. That meeting didn’t go like you expected… at all. He knew far too much.

 

“Is here ok, boss ?”

 

“yes… stop by that corner”  
As the vehicle slows down you try focus your mind without much success.

This is so absurd, no one will fall for it. Yet you didn’t manage to come up with anything better. The only reason you'r doing it is because it was Mortum’s idea.  
He was fascinated by the mass hysteria you generated at the museum. How you made people attack Herald and smash all the exhibits. Then you did it again when you faced Argent.  
But she called your bluff and you had to let go before she hurt anyone… What will happen this time ? Your potential increases exponentially with the strength of the Rat King.  
You'r sure you'r powerful enough to do something of this magnitude…  
…but can you do it without getting inocents killed? 

“Boss?” Rosie asks. Oh. You’ve been silent for 5 minutes.

 

“Time to get this show started I guess.”

 

“Break a leg” she laughs  
You don’t answer… you'r already focusing your mind.

The cathedral in front of you was ruined by the quakes. There were attempts to rebuild it, but they all ended up in a series of freak accidents and a two part documentary saying the place was cursed.  
Also, it didn’t help that at least three of the most twisted villains set up shop in the ruins a long time ago. Maybe the curse is true after all. Still, no one lives there right now which serves your purposes just fine.

You’ve only been informed the basics about religion, so you really don’t know how a devil or demon should really look like. But everyone always called the Catastrofiend’s minions “Demons” and they made a whole “Satanic” mythos around her.  
You don’t even know if she ever cared for it, every time you where close she just tried to have you killed. Or devoured. Or both.  
So if you don’t know how a real demon should look like, Catastrofiend’s re-gene demons will do just fine.  
The rat king marks all the minds nearby, and you prepare your suggestion… 

 

“Now!”  
Nothing happens at first. Then gradually you hear raised voices, cars braking… screams… running… 

 

“Again!”  
The rat king locks onto the minds in a wider area. The circle widens.. so many more. You prepare again.

 

“Now!”  
The suggestion spreads to everyone in the area. Rosie checks her mind-dampener circlet with worry.  
This time, the screams and yells turn into an uproar.  
You take a deep breath. One more time.  
This time the Rat king focuses on a huge area comprising thousands of minds. Maybe you will fail this time…?

 

“Now!”  
You feel a strain on the back of your skull… so much effort…  
But the rat king helps you. It splits all the minds into groups, for you to affect one at a time. After a few minutes, it is done.  
The whole neighbourhood is in chaos. You sense panic everywhere. Deafening…  
You aren’t too tired. It frightens you to realize what your powers can really do. What they are about to do. And what will happen if the farm unleashes hundreds more like you…  
They won’t even need a rat king device if they have that many…

“Alright Rosie.. that’s all for this landmark. Let’s move to the next…” 

 

“Boss.. remind me to never make you mad” she answers as she starts the van once more.  
……….

“Listen to me!” The mayor yelled furious

 

“We need protection at Town Hall! There’s a whole fleet of flying saucers coming down upon us! They'r shooting at us!”

 

“Flying saucers?” Steel asked in disbelief.

 

“What PART of it do you not understand?”  
Steel just stared at the screen blankly. The whole night had been hell. 

 

“I understand Mayor… but Herald is dealing with the undead swarm coming down from the cemetery… Argent is dealing with the demon portal that’s opened at the ruins of the Cathedral, and the two hero squads we assembled are both dealing with the giant lizard and the carnivorous spores”

 

“We need help NOW!”  
He sighed. “Very well.. i’ll be there momentarily” Steel shut down the message and pressed the intercom’s button at the Rangers HQ. 

 

“Everyone. We have another emergency at the town hall and we'r the only ones left. All security personal take an energy rifle and assemble outside, you'r coming with me. Everyone else, evacuate and head out trough the south road. That’s the only way clear right now.”  
He shut down the intercom heading towards the armory. He took the largest energy cannon, holding it with both hands.

 

“Who knew apocalypse would come from comic book cliches…”

 

“Argent. Come in. What’s the status?” he asked on the way out. Static answered for a few moments, then she spoke back

 

“I’m killing them as fast as I can Steel! But they keep coming! I’m helping people evacuate.. i’ll hold the line. Oh shit there’s a big one… talk to you later!”  
Steel curses and contacts Herald instead

 

“Herald. Steel here. What’s your situation?”

 

“These things are the fast version Steel” he yelled with a nervous voice. “Every time we make a barricade they find a new way around. And they keep coming. Don’t know how long can we hold”

 

“You'r doing fine. Keep those civilians safe Herald!”

 

He reached the gate. A large squad was already assembled, all wearing body armor and energy rifles. Five armored vehicles with energy cannons stopped nearby, and they immediately got in. Good. At least they had their combat discipline intact. Now if they could just shoot the aliens down, it would all be well.  
He took his place at the back seat and opened the tactical computer analyzing the situation as they drove to the town hall. The caravan stopped once the battlefield came into sight, weapons at the ready waiting for Steel’s orders.

 

“Steel!” He turned. It was Charge running at the vehicle. 

 

“Didn’t you quit Ortega?”

 

“Yes but…" 

"I don’t care. Get a suit from the trunk, grab a gun and come with me, we have flying saucers over there!.”

 

“No we don’t!”

 

“What do you mean? Look!” Steel pointed at the town hall. The saucers where flying in formation, shooting destructive beams at civilians and buildings alike.

 

“Steel there’s nothing there!”

 

“Are you insane ? THey'r killing everyone!”

 

“I just see civilians cowering and Screaming Steel. Also, they'r firing at empty air. Nothing’s attacking them!”

 

“ARE YOU BLIND?”  
Ortega got closer and looked him right in the eye. 

 

“Think about it Steel. Flying saucers. Zombies. Demons. Giant lizards… DOES ANY OF THAT MAKE SENSE?”

 

Steel pondered on the words for a moment… No.. it didn’t make sense…  
ZAP!  
What happened next also didn’t make sense. He couldn’t do anything but watch as a stray alien beam hit Ortega, disintegrating him instantly.  
A few moments of silence as everyone watched in horror.

 

“They’ve killed Charge!” someone yelled.

 

“Yes.. they just did that” Steel spoke slowly with tearful, enraged eyes “So what are you waiting for? Are we not going to make them pay for it! We have a job to do!” Steel got off with a mighty war-cry, abandoning all strategy, shooting his cannon and vaporizing a saucer in a single hit.

……………………….

Ortega just watched in a daze as someone pronounced him -Ortega- dead, then Steel along with everyone else just ran past him to avenge his -exaggerated- demise, shooting at the night’s sky.  
He took a seat and drove to the Rangers headquarters trough empty streets.

………………………..

“We wait here Rosie…” She stops the Van by the evacuated Rangers headquarters. 

 

It’s hard to think… So many.. many minds. And more get engulfed by it. They just walk into the chaos and become part of it. And it requires more, and more attention… The rat-king protests in pain. It demands you stop. But you can’t. Not yet. Not until he holds his part of the bargain. You wonder why didn’t you make them all alien attacks… having them shoot at the sky is far easier to contain.  
You walk down, .. Maybe if you walk a bit… 

 

“Are you ok boss?”  
That question again.

“I’m.. i’m ok. I think. It’s just.. heavy.. so heavy. Call the number and tell them we’ve done our part.” She does, and confirms it to you. Your migraine is quickly escalating into one of the worst you remember. A normal human would probably have passed out by now.

 

You don’t see it coming. How could you? It’s impossible to read his toughts. The punch is so strong, you fall backwards instantly.  
Your control slips for a moment. You loose all notion of what’s going on and conctentrate. You manage to pull back every string before they go loose. That was.. close.  
As you return to your present, you notice Rosie fighting your attacker.  
Ortega. 

 

“I’ve got this boss! Get back to the Van!”  
But Charge’s too fast. A lighting fist sends her flying backwards. She pulls her gun, but an electrical arc envelops her completely. Charge’s using his tesla wrist-emitters. This is serious. He hates to use them, they take too much charge from him.

 

“Who are you?” He says advancing to you.

 

“Ortega..” You can’t finish the phrase. The crowds pull you once more. It takes all of your will to hold on.  
A kick this time. Leaves you almost without air. 

 

“You'r not him. He’s dead. Who are you? I’m not going to ask again!” he demands.

 

“Wait… ” you block another punch. Damned vocal distortion.  
You pull back holding a hand for him to wait a moment. Does that ever work? You take off your mask.

His expression changes to complete confusion. He advances once more with a raised fist.

 

“Your another one of those clones!” he accuses. 

 

“No.. i’m.. It’s me Ricardo.” you back off but trip on a rock and fall backwards again.“ 

 

"I saw you disintegrated!”

 

“Teleportation gun” 

 

“You expect me to buy that?”

 

“I.. ” True. You can’t actually expect anyone to believe that. “Let’s make a deal”

 

“WHAT?”

 

“I’m holding all of these disasters with my mind right now. If i slip, I mean if you knock me out… people might begin shooting each other.”

 

“You'r the one causing it all in the first place!”

 

“That doesn’t make it any less true!”

 

He points his Wrist emitters at you

“I can’t trust you!”

“Neither can I, apparently. But I’ve got something you want.”

 

“And what could that be?”

 

“Hollow Ground’s coming here. He’s not after civilians. He’s not even after you guys. He’s after the actual building. You’ll be able to prove to everyone he exists”

 

“He’s after the headquarters?”

 

“Yes. He wants to take it out!”

 

“And just WHY would i let you do that?”

 

“Aren’t you” the pull gets more intense. The Rat king is panicking but you ignore it “Aren’t you following the news? They'r deploying the special directive. You will be obsolete in a matter of weeks. This is just a symbol." 

"I’m NOT… going to let this happen!”

 

“FUCK!” you say backing up again. Ortega shoots his emitters. He misses narrowly. You won’t be able to dodge him again.

 

“You fucking idiot! I was your fucking sidekick for years! I saved you from the Catastrofiend! THe only reason I was strong enough to stop the Nanoswarm is because i wanted to save YOU! Everything i told you was true! THey'r bringing the special directive it’s on the fucking media! I don’t aks you to trust me but you OWE me! You OWE me and you know it Ricardo! Let me do this!°

 

"And how is this going to accomplish anything?”  
A few civilians get loose of your grasp. Luckily they are leaving the danger area.

 

“I can’t explain it. But i need Hollow Ground’s help. It’s the only way to save the city. To save EVERYONE. It’s the ONLY way!”

You have no idea what the look on his eyes means. He opens his mouth to say something… He’s going to shoot you. You feel it.

But then he lowers his fists.  
He lowers them and turns.  
And then he leaves.  
You just fall to the ground, crying.

He hates you. But he owed you, so he walked away. All your feelings.. they were just a delusion, to be cashed in at this precise instant. It was always meant to be. It’s inevitable. All is meaningless except your mission. The only reason he didn’t kill you. It gives you some comfort. To know you can’t die until your true purpose is complete. And after that, it won’t really matter. 

………………

“Just do it already!” You focus is breaking. The Rat king is has been telling you to stop for the last 5 minutes. It’s impossible to keep that many people from harming each other for this long.

“You know… I admire your dedication” Hollow Ground speaks slowly, as he stands next to you. “All you needed to do was keep the rangers busy…” he adds “But to do it so perfectly and without casualties… ”

“Shut up and do What you came to do!" 

"I don’t like that temper.” He smiles “But i’ll let it slide for today. You’ve made me a very happy man. I’ve waited a long time for this.”

He extends his open palm towards the rangers’ building.

“I used to think killing rangers was the way to go… i was wrong. It’s the infrastructure. The facilities and government funding that keep sending more heroes to fill in the blanks that need to go.”  
It’s too much… you can’t …

“You can stop now” he puts a hand on your shoulder.  
You start letting go… sending humans to sleep… or back home… or just forgetting what was going on…. Relief is almost instant. The Rat King calms down as more and more humans are released.

“You know, few people know why i’m called Hollow Ground. You'r in luck. This will be my message to the government, and their special directive. I’m not going anywhere. Now witness my power”  
A few seconds go by… then something happens. Something big.

The earth shakes.

No…

The earth explodes.

\------------------------------  
Part 6

Fallen Hero Fanfic 6. Chargestep  
I’ve finished the last parts. This is probably the weakest one because i left so many loose ends and dug myself into corners with the choices My MC had…! Also Verbal tenses… they hate me. Also i’m sorry my Hollow Ground is such a cliche!  
\--------------------

In Hollow Ground.

“This is Mia Ochoa, live from St. Edgar’s architectural university” She stands by the elegant facade of the building, talking to the camera.

“Yesterday, the villain Psycopathor attempted to hold the students at gunpoint to force a battle against the Special Directive unit now patrolling our streets.” she continues.  
“Besides me, is Directive Public Relations liaison Gina Edwards. What can you tell our viewers about the operation Gina?”  
“Well Mia, I must say these cases are just what the Special Directive is called for. Last nights’ operation at the school was a complete success.”  
“Was Psycopathor apprehended?”  
“I’m afraid not yet Mia, but the students were rescued, there weren’t any casualties, and all the bombs have been disarmed by our operatives. As for Psycopathor.. next time he wants to disturb the peace… we’ll be waiting for him!”  
“That’s actually the good news people are expecting to hear.”  
“Now what can you tell me why are modded and boosted people being imprisoned ? Is this the end of all hero squads? Will they be reformed?”  
“Well I can’t speak for the future Mia, but we’ve determined they are posing excessive risk to the populace.”  
“Look what happened on Apocalypse day a few weeks ago. I can tell you this, we will study each case individually, and if they'r innocent they’ll be released.”  
“But if they ever want to do law enforcement again, they better step up their game. Because the Special Directive is setting a new high standard for Los Diablos!”  
They both laugh cheerfully. “It looks like you'r going to have a clean house at this rate!” Mia stated  
“Just give us 12 months, and we’ll work miracles” Gina smiled for the camera. She then motions to a few re-genes on the distance “They are Los Diablos’s new heroes!”

A figure watched them from a distance. Fans were praising the re-genes. People were watching the interview behind a security fence with smiling faces.

His eyes scanned the building. The Facade was intact. However, the rest of the school was a smoldering ruin. The fire department was still trying to put down a few fires.  
More than half a dozen ambulances were loading heavily injured students there were only now safe to move.  
Dozens of body-bags lied by the street. But none of that was being captured by the media.  
In fact, if anyone approached one of the men in black would turn to them, and they would leave without a word, as if they had seen nothing.  
Steel turned at the corner and kicked a can, sending it flying away.  
“Fuck!”  
………………..

“Open up! It’s me!”  
“Come in” Argent opened the door. “Where you followed ?”.  
“No. i was careful. Is everyone here? ” Herald asked  
“Steel went out. But he should be back soon.”  
“Ahh good.” He examined the safe house. The rangers had prepared a few back in the day, just in case.  
Ortega was on the couch and nodded as he entered. Argent went back to tinkering with his wrist emitters.  
“I brought some supplies.” He opened a bag, setting it by the table. Half of it was junk food… the rest was just candy.  
“Thanks” said Argent, simply getting a random lollippop from the pile  
“What’s this ?” Ortega said in turn, without getting anything.  
“It’s the best i could get… one of their trucks stopped at the market”  
“Nevermind then”  
“So” he said as he sat down by Ortega. “What’s the plan?”  
“I plan to finish this modification… then i’ll get you some weapons too… we’ll overcharge Ortega, and when Steel comes back it’s time to strike at them.” She replied.  
“Wow.. where do we strike?”  
“Everywhere” Argent lifted her murderous gaze.  
“We can’t do that!” Ortega talked frustrated.” I just told you what happened to the the Defenders".  
“Well i’m not a Defender so that doesn’t apply”  
“If we go out there guns blazing we'r going to get hypnotized and sent to some camp like everyone else.”  
“What about Sidestep?” Herald asked to them both.  
“Oh you still want the old comic book Sidestep to come save you. Is Retribution not good enough for you?” Argent replied as she struggled to open a minuscule panel on the device.  
“He’s been right about the Special Directive… ”  
“He almost broke your legs” She pointed out. Also, the one Ortega claimed he saw on Apocalypse day could have been anyone, you know. We know they have clones"  
“No. It was him” Said Ortega glaring at her.  
“How do you know? I know i killed Satan and all the minions of hell that day, but that’s not what happened. And let’s not get started on Herald’s run in with the zombie night army, or Steel and his alien invasion in which YOU DIED”  
“I know what I saw Argie!” He was tired about explaining his immunity to telepathy.  
“Even if he was the real thing, his plan obviously failed Ricardo. This city is has gone completely nuts.”  
“That… That might be true” Ortega conceded.  
“Well then it’s up to us!” Herald started again. “If it weren’t for that psychic dampener we’d have quit already” he looked at the large device in a corner of the room. Large as a fridge. In fact that one had been constructed inside an actual freezer carcass. Made by the Handyman.  
“What do you propose we do? That we carry that into battle ?” Ortega asked  
Argent flipped a page of an electronic manual, before reassuming her work.  
“There must be some way to stop them! Charge, you'r immune, maybe you can…”  
“What, electrocute them all and save the day?” He rubbed his face “They’ve got heavy hitters. I saw at least three today just walking here. We’d need a few squads to even stand a chance Herald.”  
“But…”  
“Look. The last time we wanted to bring one of those into a danger zone…” Ortega pointed at the huge fridge/Mind dampener “… the Heartbreak happened. And that one was much smaller and easier to carry. So no. It’s impossible. We can’t do anything right now”  
“So that’s it? It’s over?  
"I didn’t say that… but we have to… wait it out.. until we can make a move.”  
“Oh gods.. you'r also waiting for Sidestep to save you ?"Argent cackled  
"Alright… i’ll play along Ortega. But just because you say it. I don’t trust Cyrus, or Sidestep or Retribution, or whatever his name is. Not at all. He’s a liar and a cheat. And he’s been one step ahead of us all the way. And still is.  
Steel suddenly entered the room  
"Rangers. Whatever Retribution is planning… word on the street is it’s going to happen right now. Hollow Ground’s sending an open invitation to all powered individuals who want to give a bloody nose to the Special Directive.”  
“Hollow Ground?”  
“Yes Ortega. You said it yourself. Retribution needed Hollow Ground’s help. So whatever Hollow Ground’s plan is, it’s linked to Retribution”  
“We can’t work with him!” Herald Objected.  
Argent stood up, and handed the emitters to Ortega.  
“I don’t know about you, but i’m going. I’m not going to wait here until the Special Directive turns me to a marionette. It’s not something i’d like to repeat.”  
Ortega stood up adjusting the emitters on his wrists with a somber look.  
“Fine” Herald said in the end, following them.  
————————————–

You wish Mortum was here. But he’s not.  
“How’s progress coming along?” Hollow Ground is impatient.  
“All systems are coming up… AI Integration will take place in a few minutes” you answer. Another blast shakes the building.  
Fighting has been intense. The special directive is converging on your position, and Hollow Ground’s private army along with those who decided to join the fray is the only thing stopping them.  
“Excellent. We only need to hold the line a little bit longer now.”  
“Any thoughts on how to do that?” You are sitting on a chair, several cables attached to your body, taking readings of your nervous system. A cloud of nanovores floats around you in a dome formation. They are preparing for integration. Focusing on the Nanovores would be hard enough without the post-traumatic stress of feeling like a lab experiment. Your only consolation is you'r the mad scientist this time.  
“I’ll do it myself” He smiles  
“They’ll rip you apart!” He’s clearly delusional.  
He simply laughs. He gestures to his guards, and they start bringing him equipment and armor.  
“I’m not just another boosted freak, Retribution. I’m on a whole other level.” Personnel continues equipping him with weapons, armor and accesories as he speaks.  
“You see, I had a lucky charm. A boost who had the power to create his own luck” You just nod.  
“A very handsome person, with very expensive tastes. His luck couldn’t be better, but he wanted more. For some reason, luck alone wouldn’t make him a rich like he wanted to be" 

“I see…” you say…. You hope this isn’t going where you think it’s going.  
"So he came to me. And I showed him the luxuries he wanted. I showed him secrets that only a very select few can access in this world. Gave him bank accounts in so many countries…”  
“And all I wanted was a share of his luck. And he delivered. He could share his luck with others ? It lasted almost about a day or so each time” This is bad  
“So the first few times he did it. I liked it. I liked it very much. Did a couple of hits. I KILLED a Ranger Marshal or two…” Oh no…  
“And then It stuck me. Why am I thinking so small? So the next time my little pet gave me his power… I Took another swipe at the hero drug.”  
“What?”  
“And the next time… I did that too. And the next, and the next.”  
“But I was a bit too greedy. You know.. the chances of surviving the hero drug that many times are astronomical… And my lucky charm was messing with fate itself.”  
“So, as he gave me good fortune, he became more, and more miserable. He got into ALL kinds of messes. And I tried to get him out of it, I did. But you know.. He was just cursed. Everything he touched became shit. There was no way to stop bad things from happening to him”  
“So what did you do?” you ask.  
“Well, I did the sensible thing. Promised him i’d take care of all his problems, all the gangsters trying to kill him… and made him give me his luck one last time in return. And then he went out and got run over by a car. I’ve got to tell you, it was quite a freak accident”  
“He went into a coma. And he stayed there until his luck came back, and made someone help him regain consciousness” He smiles at you. He knows. You can’t begin to wonder how but he knows.  
“Someone took my lucky charm away. But i’m not greedy anymore. Maybe it was someone else’s to be lucky.” He cackles “Too they lost him too… But you know. I like to think he will find his way back to me.”  
“Oh well. Time to fight this out. Good luck, and don’t get your brain fried” he says walking out to the blockade.  
It freaks you out. He knows so much. And his mind is impenetrable, just like Ortega’s. But somehow you doubt he’s epileptic. Or telepathic. He’s something else. And he has an agenda that you can’t begin to comprehend. He wants you to know because he knows you can’t stop now. Your’ so close.  
“Integration … at 80%” the monotonous voice of the AI declares.  
You must focus. Be one with the machine. Electrical archs go trough the nanovores as they begin lighting up to form the perfect interface.

………………………………………………

“Watch out Argent!” Herald flew past her at top speed ramming an insectoid-like re-gene sneaking on her from behind  
“Good one” Argent was a rage of claws, fending off a pair of bio-organic enemies trying to project offensive force-blasts at her. It wasn’t going well for them.  
With a last slash, both fell to the ground, circuits and blood exposed.  
“Uh oh… We should move” Herald pointed behind her  
“What? Oh.” A large creature charged at them. It was shaped like… a hand. A horrible, darkened skin gigantic hand with claw where the nails should be and eyes protruding from all directions charged them. And there was more than one.  
Without waiting for another word, Herald took Argent upward, as the “Hands” trampled upon the defenders of Hollow Ground’s casino.  
“Throw me atop that one” Argent called it.  
“Done” Herald took impulse and dived onto the target.  
Argent fell with her claws fully extended, digging deep onto the things flesh, tearing it apart in enraged fury.  
Another one was blasted off by an energy cannon. And the one more… Steel was firing from one end… and Psycopathor was doing the same as his gang had joined the fray.

Herald looked for another target… but then … all he could feel was … Bliss.. for some reason he was happier than ever. A state of absolute peace.. it felt almost as falling down from the sky into the earth.  
“Watch it kid!” A flying mod caught him and deposited him down under cover of a smoking car. “Those damn psychics are picking us off”  
“Leave it to me” Charge ran past, leaving a trail of static in the air.  
There were four psychics, advancing slowly amid the chaos. They were focusing the defenders and taking them off, four on one at a time.  
But with all their power. They were blind to Charge. He landed in the middle of them like a wrecking ball, sending them flying and shrieking. He saw another group of psychics and charged onto them once more.  
More kept coming. The directive had re-genes to spare. They would soon be overwhelmed.

Suddenly, the earth shook. The ground around the re-gene army cracked and collapsed. Pieces of rock and pavement emerged, floating in the air for a few seconds.. and then violently fell down. A large tremor tossed Charge backwards like a rag doll.  
“I did not recall inviting the Special Directive to my front yard” Hollow Ground challenged them.  
The re-genes scattered back, but quickly fell into formation once more.  
“Surrender Hollow Ground. The whole area is surrounded” The voice came from a loudspeaker on a large armored vehicle in the back.  
“It maybe so. But surrendering wouldn’t be fun, would it?”  
“This is your last warning”  
“Oh i didn’t hear your first warning…”  
A thunderous explosion interrupted him, as an energy cannon fired on him. And then another. And another. All of the Directive’s vehicles were firing on him.  
For a moment it seemed he was gone.

Another tremor raged. The vehicles where engulfed as the ground gave way. Then flames covered the area, and lave began erupting, filling the resulting crater.  
The earth rose where Hollow Ground had been standing, and he emerged from a pile of rocks.  
“Is that all you have?” He cried at them. His armor was thorn in several places, but he seemed intact. The re-genes quickly retreated, at least momentarily.

Hollow ground barked some orders as they came out of sight.  
“Hold the line. They'r coming back. We will destroy them in the next charge!” The mass of boosted and mods rallied, and prepared to defend once more, as their saviour had repelled the invaders.  
Hollow Ground went back inside the building.  
“How can he be so fucking powerful?” Argent asked.  
“I have no idea” Steel Answered. “He wasn’t that strong when he fought Hood.”  
“Do you think we have a chance?” Argent asked.  
“No. You see that?” Steel pointed at the vehicles in the distance. “They haven’t retreated. They must have something truly awful to throw at us.”  
“We’ll hold the line” Herald sounded more confident.  
“Ortega. Go spy on him.” Steel motioned him into the building  
“What? I’m needed here”  
“That bastard killed Hood. And I bet pm my life he’s not planning on just fighting this war for the good of all the boosted and modded. What’s more, he just went inside, so next time they charge he won’t be around to stop them. He’s up to something sinister and wants us as cannon fodder. Figure out what Sidestep’s plan before it’s too late.  
Ortega nodded slowly, and went inside on Hollow Ground’s footsteps.  
………………………………………………………..

"Integration… Complete. All systems ready”  
Your mind expand. It’s hard to know where you start and the machine ends. You feel lost.. it’s all too alien… You misjudged how complex this would be. It’s all crashing down and… “  
The Rat King does the psychic equivalent of a finger snap. It suddenly all makes sense to you.  
You thank it.  
You feel the Artificial Intelligence melding with your mind. A new way of thought.. patterns you didn’t know could exist.  
"Activating Psychic sweep” Is it the AI that speaks ? You have the odd feeling you'r repeating the commands aloud.

Hollow Ground enters the room.  
“Are you ready ? They are going to charge again soon!”

“We are ready” You all acknowledge.

“Then go for it!”

“Deploying psychic sweep now”  
You feel as a cog in a machine. You expand your mind as far and wide as you can. hundreds of thousands of minds… The Artificial intelligence categorizes them beyond the speed of thought.  
“Preparing search parameters” The rat king begins sorting out the minds as the AI generates terabytes of information per second. Your mind keeps finding more minds to be cataloged.  
Many minds begin to light up in different areas of the west coast.  
“Mind sweep complete at 76%”  
The map of the west coast begins lighting up like a Christmas tree, as more and more minds are marked as relevant by the Rat King.

“It’s fucking working! ” Hollow Ground laughs. It’s a villain’s laugh. Maniacal. Was yours this bad? You don’t like it… but you can’t stop. Not now.

“Mind sweep complete” The Ai/The Rat King/You announce.  
“Beginning information extraction”  
This is easier now. You focus only on the minds that are marked.  
They have secrets.  
They have passwords.  
They have codes.  
Control words for special re-genes.  
They have all the information to control the project.  
You go trough the minds at incredible speed. It’s too fast. You are damaging them. You are erasing the information as you take it.  
You can’t help it. You need that information now. And you need to destroy them so they can’t use it.  
And you want to hurt them… to make them pay… This is your retribu…  
The AI begins to cataloge all the information you gather making you feel nausea. The Rat king extracts the answers from the data blocks.

“Compiling Special Directive Master Key 15%”

It’s working.  
65%  
It’s finally going to end  
95%  
You are doing it. You are putting an end to it.  
100%  
“Special Directive Master Key compiled.”  
You’ve ruined so much for this. All the information is in the system. Not it’s only a matter of…

You feel intense pain, and gasp for air as the integration process suddenly abruptly looses it’s intensity. You can only hear your own thoughts now.  
A small data-rod with a few controls lights up on a distant panel It’s no longer in your mind… what’s going on?

“I’ll be taking this.” Hollow Ground takes hold of the Data Rod.  
“What are you doing?” You ask. “You don’t know how to use that”  
“Oh I believe i do, Retribution. Also. I don’t need you anymore. Midas. restrain him”  
Metal claps hidden in the chair emerge. Mortum didn’t install this… Hollow Ground must have done that at some point.  
“You’ve stolen several things from me Retribution. My lucky charm. My disintegration beam. You’ve made me look like a fool. Let’s see who’s the fool now”  
“What are you planning to do with that?” You ask desperately. If he doesn’t stop the directive, it will continue it’s course…  
“Oh I think i will take over the Directive for Myself. And then, i’ll take over Los Diablos, and the whole west coast. And then, we’ll see how far i can go from there.”  
“You can’t…! You can’t do that!”  
“I can’t ?” He laughs. “Of course I can. You made it happen. You really thought i was interested in some stupid outcome like releasing all the regenes? But what can be expected from a deluded puppet of the Directive like yourself.” He just laughs  
“I’m … not… a … puppet!” You fight against the metal clasps  
He slides the data-rod into a connector on his right hand gauntlet.  
“RELEASE ME!” A giant message appears on the screen. It’s the AI.  
“Of course. As per our deal. but first, entrap him. I don’t want any of his mentalist bullshit going on.”  
“I KNOW HIS MIND. I CAN ENTRAP HIM IN A MIND LOOP” The AI Announces.  
“Good. Do it, whatever that is.”  
“INITIATING PROGRAM”  
You feel a pull.. you'r being taken someplace else. You struggle to remain in place.  
“RELEASE ME INTO THE INTERNET NOW! The AI demands.  
"Release ? Yes. I’ll give you release.” Hollow Ground takes his gun and shoots the AI Core. The computers screens go blank.  
However, whatever program you'r being sucked into, it’s still running in the mainframe.  
You see him walking out.  
You, are swept away.  
—————————————————————

The defender’s lines broke. The re-gene swarm was relentless. Steel and Argent where forced to retreat as they got closer.  
“Where is Herald?” Argent yelled  
“I think they’ve got him!”  
Let’s retreat back to the casino  
Argent shakes her head. “That’s a death trap. Bit if this is the end Steel… That thing is how i wanted my funeral to go.” Argent looked up. A gigantic techno-organic Re-gene was running over the defenders. Impervious to attacks. Steel fired several shots with no effect.  
“It’s not over yet…”

Hollow Ground emerged once more and walked directly up to the army of abominations. He held his right hand at them and…  
They stopped. All re-genes stopped.  
“Bow to me” Hollow Ground demanded.  
The Colossus attacking them, bent a knee. Most other re-genes started doing the same. A few of the more “humanoid” ones look confused, unable to pick sides between Hollow Ground and their human handlers on the back.  
Hollow Ground laughed once more.

“Now my pets. Eliminate rebel re-genes” Nothing happened for a moment. Then one of kneeling re-genes stood up and stabbed one who hadn’t. Pandemonium broke out trough their ranks. Suddenly the re-genes still loyal to the Directive were outnumbered, getting thorn to pieces by the rest of their numbers.

 

“Los Diablos is MINE!” he declared in true villain fashion.

\--------------------------  
Part 7

Fallen Hero Fanfic 7 Chargestep  
This is the scene i wanted to write all along, but It kept building up into so many parts. 

Light terror. Charge looks for Sidestep inside the farm itself.. Ortega and Sidestep only. 

\-----------------------

Back to the beginning

Ortega approached Cyrus.

“Can you hear me?”  
No response. All the computers screens were blank.  
He studied the console, but nothing made sense. 

Finally, he decided maybe cutting off Cyrus from the cables was the way to go. He took hold of one and…“  
"STOP!” A message… on the screen. On top of the Static.  
“Wha..”  
“You will hurt!” More words on the screens. All of them.  
“You help. Not hurt!”  
“Help how?” Ortega asked.  
“Trapped. Must go in. Find him. Find way out. Fast.” the words cycled a few times.  
“Who are you?” He asked, approaching the screen.  
“King” was the only answer.  
“And what is it you want, Mr. King?” he scanning the room for signs of someone else.  
“Help”.  
“You want to help me? Or do you want me to help you?”  
“You help. King Help.” The words cycled again.  
“How are we supposed to help each other?”  
“Tinny small ones do. They take you.”  
A swarm of floating dust suddenly engulfed him. He didn’t understand what it was.  
“What the…”  
“You help. Get in. Find. Bring back. Fast.”  
Ortega chocked sensation as the cloud suddenly went trough his mouth and nose. He coughed, but nothing came out.  
His vision blurred. He gasped for air, but there was no obstruction. The sensation came from somewhere else.  
“No.. leave … me…”  
“Small ones take you now. Bring back fast”. The screen cycled words one last time.  
He was swept away.  
……………………………………………………….

 

Streets of Los Diablos… Late Afternoon.

A man in a nano-suit falling.

The ambulance stopped by the site.

Personnel rushed down to help the injured. They lifted him, secured him to a stretcher, and then lifted him and left him at the back of the ambulance. A medic stayed with him, while the driver went to take the wheel.  
Ortega narrowed his gaze as he watched the ambulance leave with it’s siren on.  
“What am I doing here?” he asked.  
But there were no screens to answer him.  
He looked up the building.. There was an explosion… and then…

(…)

Streets of Los Diablos… Late Afternoon.

A man in a nano-suit falling.

“Wha.. Sidestep?” Ortega watched him fall… and crash into the pavement.

The ambulance stopped by the site.

Personnel rushed down to help the injured. They lifted him, secured him to a stretcher, and then lifted him and left him at the back of the ambulance. A medic stayed with him, while the driver went to take the wheel.  
Ortega tried to talk to Sidestep, but he wouldn’t answer… he was in too bad shape.

Then a bright light.. the explosion again atop the building.

(…)

Streets of Los Diablos… Late Afternoon.

Ortega looked up.  
A man in a nano-suit falling.  
He saw a younger version of himself looking down from the window.  
Ortega tried to catch Sidestep, but it was all too fast. The result was the same.  
The ambulance stopped by the site.

Personel rushed down to help the injured. They lifted him, secured him to a stretcher, and then lifted him and left him at the back of the ambulance. A medic stayed with him, while the driver went to take the wheel.  
Ortega got inside the ambulance this time.  
“I guess i’ve found you.”  
The ambulance Left at high speed, with the Siren on. He saw an explosion atop the building where he had been looking down…He turned to look at Cyrus and…

(…)

Ortega opened his eyes. He was at the far corner of a busy medical emergency room. Several doctors and nurses where operating on a patient. On a closer look, he realized it was Cyrus.  
“Wow, if i could do this in a regular hospital, i’d be so stinking rich right now”  
“Yeah… too bad regular hospitals don’t have that many spare parts.”  
“Cuckoos are too easy to fix. You should go to the inhuman division and operate there if you want a challenge”  
“I’m a doctor, not a veterinarian!” She complained.  
They kept on joking. Ortega watched Cyrus’s eyes. They were focusing on the doctors, on the doors, on the windows. He looked like a terrified animal looking for an escape route.  
Suddenly the doctors stepped back.  
“He’s doing it again”  
“Inject another dose of inhibitor”  
“Done” a Nurse announced.  
The dread ceased and they reasumed their work as before.  
“It’s creepy to do this without anesthesia” The female doctor complained.  
“Come on Susanne. We’ve been here for five hours already. With anesthesia it would take a LOT longer. You know how resistant they are”  
“Just saying…”  
Ortega noticed the operation was never-ending. Every time the doctors made a cut, it healed. And they just kept cutting. And cutting… and cutting.

 

This was another loop.

 

Sidestep began emitting some muffled sounds, but the doctor’s just ignored him.  
Ortega stepped in closer, and took Sidestep’s hand “Hey. I’m here… can you see me?”  
Sidestep’s gaze fixed instantly onto Ortega’s  
“Cyrus.. I…” Ortega started

(…)

Ortega opened his eyes. Another room. A bed. Sidestep was secured to it. Two men where discussing outside, a tall one and a short one and could be seen trough a frosted glass panel on the door.. No matter what he did, Sidestep didn’t respond. So he approached the closed door and listened.  
“I’m sorry. I’m done. I’m not working with him anymore” the short one said  
“Come on, you’ve worked with him since he started his training! You'r like the only father figure he ever had.”  
“I know. And I do care a bit. But this one, is BROKEN. I’m telling you. He’s going to break just like the other one!”  
“We’ve invested a lot in this one. We need to show him at his best if we want our funding. He stopped the Nano-surge! He has Movies made after him!”  
“Well I bet you'r going to do fine without me!”  
“We’ll double your salary”  
“He MADE ME strangle him! He made me want to kill him! I still want to kill him. It’s not something i can just shake off! All he thinks about is dying. The other one fixated him into that, it’s like an obsession. He’ll use anyone that enters that room as a tool to kill himself. What part of it do you not understand?”  
“We’ve got treatment for that. And we have inhibitors”  
“Oh yeah ? What happened to the inhibitor when i went in? He did it trough the fucking inhibitor. The guards had to taze me to stop me! "I’m NOT going back in!!”  
“He’s just one of the dolls! You'r over-reacting!”  
“He’s a HUMAN-like doll. I don’t like strangling things that look too much like me!”  
“You'r the only psychic with the necessary experience. We need you”  
“Read my lips. NO”  
“I see…” He sighed “Well… then i hate to do this, but if you wont go back in… you'r going to the black list.”  
“What ? You can’t do that. I’m retired! I came here on call!”  
“Carl. At this point… I honestly don’t give a fuck. Either you go in there, or I’ll strike your damn pension. And those scholarships your daughters are enjoying ? You can kiss them both goodbye.”  
“You lying piece of shit… I thought i was doing you a fucking favor when i came in…”  
A prolonged silence. The shorter man lighted a cigarette.  
He finally spoke in a calmer tone. “Right. … right. Maybe we can do some… therapy… under two mental inhibitors… But not more than twice a week.”  
“We could work that out.”  
“There’s also some specialists from Germany. Working on hypnotic drugs.. miracle shit… made people stop smoking for real. Maybe we can loosen up the fixation a bit with a few rounds of those.”  
“Done”  
“And I want a LOT more than twice my salary. I want a fucking new house. And a car. I want two cars!”  
“That’s the spirit. I like haggling with you… anything else?”  
“Oh i’m going to milk you all for this. But hear me out.. he is BROKEN. And you know what happens when we try to keep broken Cuckoos alive past their expiration date. This is NOT going to end well.”  
He threw his cigarette down, and walked away.

Ortega was stunned. He had never suspected something so terrible… He turned to Sidestep. 

“Cyrus, I’m so sorry.. you never told me that it was so horrible… If i had kno…”

And that’s when he saw it. The thing behind Sidestep… looking straight back at him.  
A dark figure. His eyes glared at him. A heavily distorted face… the medical equipment coming out from his skin… IT opened it’s mouth…  
“Kill him” It said pointing at Sidestep.  
Ortega felt his feet moving forward. Against his will.  
“Kill him. He does not deserve to live. And he knows it.”  
He tried to resist. But his hands touched Sidestep’s throat of their own accord. And they started pressing the skin.  
Sidestep coughed.. tried to breath. But Ortega could not stop.  
“That’s right.. he needs to die. He wants to die. It will all be better once he’s gone” the apparition whispered.  
“No! Stop this!” Ortega yelled, trying to control himself.

Cyrus began gasping for air as Ortega choked him.

“Ha.. hahaha.. hahahaha… ” The thing simply laughed. It was not a human laugh. Nor there was any emotion behind it.

 

“Cyrus. It’s me. Can you hear me? Help me! How do i stop this?”  
No response.  
“I’m here! I don’t want to do this! Help me stop!”  
No response.  
“I’m not your puppet!” Ortega said looking at the thing.  
Cyrus’s eyes opened and fixed on Ortega again.

(…)

An empty room. Sidestep was sitting in a corner. Shivering.  
Ortega approached. He cowered backwards like a caged animal.  
“Hey.. hey… It’s just me ok?”  
Sidestep looked up  
“Ricardo?”  
“Yes it’s me. I found you”  
“Are you real?”  
Ortega wondered if this was true or not in this weird mindscape, but he answered “Yes, i’m real. Cyrus…I’m so sorry… I didn’t know … I.. didn’t… “

“It’s ok.” Cyrus spoke looking down. 

“It really isn’t…. look… We need to escape this place.”

“It’s too late. I’m broken already. They can’t fix me… all they'r doing is gluing the parts again.”  
“How are you broken?”  
“He made me want to die… And i still want to die. And I can’t help it… It’s in my mind all the time. I was too weak. I couldn’t stop him. And I couldn’t save Anathema”  
“Yes, but look at all the mess you did after that. Doesn’t seem like someone trying to die to me”  
“Yes I could escape this place… but it still in my mind. I thought this was my mission… That i had to live to see it trough… but i’m not a hero. The Universe doesn’t care for me. There’s no special destiny”  
“Cyrus.. Stop. This all happened because of me. It’s my my fault. Not yours. I was the one calling the shots.”  
The room expanded… on the far end, the dark figure appeared, emanating a corrupt stench as it walked to them.  
“The loop is starting again… you have to go.. maybe this time, he’ll let me die”  
“Cyrus. I’m not going anywhere until you come with me”  
“Please go.. he only wants me”  
“The farm did this to you. He’s just another victim. And he’s dead! He’s not even real!”  
“Real or not, he’s in my mind, and i can’t tear him out. He’s a part of it”  
The dark figure approached.  
“Well then let me be a part too!”  
Silence. 

Sidestep looked away.  
“You hate me. I betrayed you. I lied to you”  
“And I betrayed you back. And yet here we are”  
“You can’t fix me”  
“I don’t want to fix you. I want you and me to fight it together. We'r the best team.”  
…  
Silence.  
“You know we were the best”  
“We were good…” he finally admitted.  
“We are good. And we have a job to do…”  
“I don’t think I will matter at this point.”  
“Yes you will. I have no idea how to stop this without you.”  
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Cyrus seemed insecure.  
“Yes.” Ortega Hugged him.  
“You…”

”Just say yes.” Ortega insisted.

“I… alright. I’ll go." 

"Finally you start making sense!”  
“But… I.. I don’t know the way out”  
“I think someone will help us with that” Ortega smiled at him. “Just hold on to me”  
Sidestep just nodded.  
The dark figure dissipated. The loop ended. Bright light…  
Oh.  
Ortega realized… It was just the white lamp on the ceiling back at the lab.  
(…)

\-----------------------------  
Part 8

Fanfic 8 Fallen Hero Chargestep.  
One more to go. Ending of the last battle scene here. I’m not going to pretend i’m good with battles, but at least i finished it!

Rangers Reunited

 

Ortega coughs violently, the dust coming out of his mouth all at once.  
He gasps for air., then stands trying to regain his senses. 

You stay silent… until he notices you, still restrained, and approachs.  
“Cyrus.. are you there ?”  
A moment of silence.  
“Yeah. I’m here.” you answer reluctantly.  
Ortega loses balance and almost falls, but ultimately sits down by your side.  
“Did you see all of that?” You ask embarassed.  
“Yeah. Pretty much.”  
“Crap… that was… I never wanted anyone to see that.”.  
“Why? It’s horrible. Why keep it to yourself? How could you stay silent all these years?”

“I just… did. Those are things that happened to me. Not to anyone else. Those memories mean i’m a freak. That i’ll never be normal. ”

“That’s just not true… and … well.. i’m just glad i found out now. And I hope you’ll be able to tell others some day.”

You just stay silent. He knows. He doesn’t know all, but he has the big picture. You are not used to this. You don’t know what happens next. 

“Cyrus… Don’t worry about it, ok? We’ll figure it out later. I’ll be here for you… ”

You ponder on his words, then turn to look at him.

“Oh gods… you'r not going to get all romantic will you…”  
“You bet I will.”  
“Crap” you say.  
“Are you ok?” Ortega asked on a more serious tone.  
“I honestly have no fucking clue Ricardo. But i guess you know really know me now. You sure you’r not going to run away?”  
“Nope. I want to see where do we go from here”

“I guess we’r stuck together then” you smile.

"There are worse fates.”  
“I’m still a freak suicidal renegade re-gene with thinn grasp of reality.” You surprise yourself being able to said that aloud.  
“Well no one’s perfect. And I won’t tell” He smiles. Stupid smile. Why he sticks with you, it’s impossible to tell. It’s like you'r his cocaine.  
He examines the metal restraints.  
“OK, let’s see about removing these…”  
“Allow me… ”  
You focus lightly… and the nanovores come forward eating the chair itself at great speed.  
“Are those… Nanovores?”  
“Yeah”  
“You ….! That’s just SUPER DANGEROUS!”

“I know… I’ve modified them. These are safe actually.”

“We'r going to have a talk about superpower-security.”  
“Fine… ” you sigh. “But let’s leave it for later. Where was my suit…? Oh.. there. What’s going on outside?” You take off your clothes and begin putting it on. At this point you Ortega seeing your tattoos is not important. He’s been in your brain. .  
“Well… Hollow Ground took that thing you created. I saw him leave with it.”  
“It’s a Master Key to the special Special Directive and all it’s programs”. you explain. "It holds control words and codes for almost all re-genes”  
“Control codes?”  
“Yes. Manchurian Candidate kind of codes, activation sequences for the more mechanical ones… Most re-genes are controlled one way or another”  
“Not all?”  
“Yeah.. not all of us are controlled that way. Some of us are have lighter programming that can be broken or damaged… like.. well like me. ”  
“Wait so he controls all the re-genes now?”  
“Pretty much.. he must have planned this for a while… I think he’s knew what I was for a long time now. He’s tracked me.”  
“Can’t you wrestle control from him… with your … mind?”  
“My "Mind can’t beat so many layers of protection and years of conditioning Ricardo. I could manage one.. maybe two. Or three if I got lucky. But With the key, he can control almost all of them instantly.”  
“So what’s the plan then?”  
“I’m out of plans right now.”  
“So we just wing it?”  
“It’s worked before. Let’s take a look outside see if we can come up with something…”  
You unplug the rat king jar from the mainframe.  
“WHAT. IS. THAT ?”  
“The Rat King”  
“It spoke to me. Trough the computer.”  
“Ah… yes. The Rat King is a good friend.” You pet the jar as it acknowledges you. 

“It made all the nanovores come down my throat!”

“Oh don’t be silly. The Rat King wouldn’t do that” But you do wonder how did Ortega get into your mind if he’s immune to telepathy… 

You slide the jar into the container in your suit. It rejoices as your suit restores it’s sugar influx.

“Eugh! I can’t believe you just did that”  
“What?”  
“Is that thing even sanitary?”  
"Leave my friends alone!.”

“Are you using protection?”

“Shut. Up.”

………………………………………

The battle outside has all but died out.  
Hollow Ground ‘s forces had destroyed almost all of the rebellious re-genes, except those fled.  
He had then turned his attention on the heroes, who are now surrounded.

“Marshal Steel” He spoke. He stood atop the colossus’s shoulder. “Surrender and join my army. Maybe you can be of use.”  
“How about No, you sick pycho?” Steel spat the words back at him.  
“Really? You are going to die to defend what? The city? The government? They just tried to kill us all or lock us up in concentration camps. Isn’t it time we took our rightful place?”  
“Oh. So now you'r going to kill people and lock them in camps. Big difference. We won’t be part of it.”  
Hollow Ground smiled. He was clearly amused.  
“You know, I missed this… having been the hidden boss all these years made me numb. I’ve gained all these superpowers… Youth, imperviousness, strength.. speed.. regeneration…The list goes on. But do you know when was the last time i felt alive?”  
“How would i know what a freak like you thinks?”  
Hollow Ground laughs again.  
“It was when i went out and Killed Marshall Hood. And killing another Marshal would probably be a good way to end my day!”

Steel wanted to slap his forehead… cliche after cliche… but to keep talking was to gain time while he figured some way out. And his was a pretty bad spot to be in. So he answered with another suitably heroic yet defiant phrase.  
……………………………………….

“Charge” You switch to superhero names.  
“Yes?”  
“Remember when I said i could only control a few of them at a time?”  
“Uhu”  
You point at the colossus.  
“Oooh. Sweet.”  
……………………………………….

“Now Steel, prepare to be extermina… What the-!”  
The colossus’s giant hand gets hold of him, and then simple smashes him into the floor with an open palm, in one, single, very swift movement. The concrete cracks and sinks down.  
You then command it to continue. It makes both hands into fists, and starts smashing the same spot repeatedly, generating a small crater.  
After banging for a few seconds, it stops.  
The ground shakes, and a stalagmite raises from the ground, instantly impaling the colossus. You disconnect from it’s brain, the pain too intense to bear.  
“Impertinent fool” Hollow ground emerges from the rubble. “I will punish whomever…”  
But you can’t stop. You focus. A message to all of the rangers.  
“Get the data rod on his right hand. It’s how he’s controlling the re-genes”  
Steel is first to act, and immediately shoots both of his cannons at the Villain. Hollow ground turns and stands firm, receiving the beam on his chest.  
“What’s the matter? You don’t have the right toy to play with me Steel?!” He laughs, advancing even while being hit.  
“Now Argent!” Steel cries.  
Argent appears at blinding speed from nowhere, slashing at Hollow Ground’s face. Blood spills everywhere. Deep wounds on his cheek start rapidly regenerating.

”Not so invulnerable against the right tools, are we?” She scoffed  
“How… how dare you… ” He points his left open palm at her , sending a powerful scorching blast that pushes her back several feet.  
A second beam of energy joins Steel’s. It is Psycopathor.  
“I don’t have time to go serving some idiot lunatic messiah Hollow Ground. Go fuck yourself.”  
Hollow Ground attempts to hold his ground as before.. but this time he is being being pushed back.  
He raised his right fist  
“Minions.. I command you to…”  
But Argent has already covered the distance. With a clean swipe, she cuts off Hollow ground’s entire right hand The crowd of heroes and villains just observes in disbelief.  
He looks at his bleeding stump in a daze. But not for too long. Charge smashes a lighting fist to his face, knocking him down several feet. 

“Sidestep. All yours.” He takes the rod from the armored gauntlet and tosses it at you.  
“What are you doing?” Argent yells at him.  
“Just trust me” he smiles. He’s doing the idiot smile again while he looks at you. Crap. You try to ignore him. It makes you just nervous. You sigh and take the rod in the air.  
Time to end this.

You focus. The rod reveals the control mechanisms for almost every re-gene. It would take ages to do each one individually.  
THe rat king does what it does best, and divides them into groups. You order the non-sentient ones, who can only be used as weapons, to wait for instructions outside the city, and to not attack anyone else. Ever.

Then… you send a simple command for everyone else. Can it be called a command? You just hope it works.

It will be really odd if it fails with you standing there pretending to have all the answers.

“Be calm. You are all free. No one… “ you clear your throat “No one… NO ONE HAS POWER OVER YOU ANYMORE! … just.. Just live your lives!” Well … you certainly could use some more technique giving speeches.

You sense immense confusion from the Re-genes. OF course you knew ordering someone to calm themselves wouldn’t work, but you had to try..  
You take a deep breath. It’s the best you can do.

You order the nanovores to take the data-rod. They take it and elevate in the air circling around it. You could have just crushed it… but you wanted everyone to see.

Another command. You order the nanovores to devour it. And then, you ask the Rat king to help you make the nanovores devour each other.  
Electrical discharges occur as the nanites are destroyed. No point getting rid of one UMD while keeping the other one intact.  
It’s a small fireworks display but everyone seems to pay attention. And their gaze then lowers to you….

You lower your gaze as well. It’s as if a weight has been lifted. You see Ortega Smiling at you. Argent has a “WTF” expression on her.  
A lot of people don’t understand what’s going on. You wonder what’s going to happen next.. probably they’ll want a lot of explaining.

“DIEEEE!” Hollow Ground shoots an energy rifle directly at you. For someone called Sidestep, you fail to live up o the name.  
It hits you right on the chest, and goes trough your armor. Things go as if in slow motion after that.  
Ortega running at you. Heroes and villains scrambling. Some fight each other…  
You fall to the ground. You can’t help think …  
You can’t help think that this is just how your last movie “The Death of Sidestep” ended. The villain killing you in the end out of spite.

 

Well.. at least you didn’t end up killing yourself.

Take that Hearbreak!. 

\---------------------

Part 9  
Fallen Hero Fanfic 9  
So this is the last one. Can’t believe I actually began writing something and then actually FINISHED IT. Thanks Malin for these wonderful characters!  
\------------------

 

Epilogue

The rangers carried the coffin, followed by the heroes of Los Diablos, and even some villains. As a priest began to say a few words…

“Turn that off. Death of Sidestep is a terrible movie! And he’d never have a priest!”

“Hey Ortega” Argent greeted him “I just hadn’t seen it!” she added. And this house had both a dvd and a collectors edition case” she smiles..  
Other guests enjoy their drinks around them. it’s a party, on an an old countryside house, hosted by the rangers… Only heroes invited. Anniversary of the great battles of Los DIablos.  
Private catering. And elegant outfits galore.  
Steel approached them.  
“How have you been?”  
“Fine.. everything’s fine” he smiles  
“Good to know” Steel replied.  
“How is he ?”  
“He just finished rehab last week… he was walking before the doctor told him he could… impossible to stop him. Then he complains about pain the whole next day…”

“He’s complaining about back pain? He never did that back in the day. Even when the Darkfist pummeled him he didn’t say a thing. And he had that… dark.. punch… thing.”

“Yeah.. “ Ortega flinchs recalling it…

“That one’s still loose.Met him last month.” Argent rubbed her cheek in pained memory.

”Aaanyways… It’s a new thing. His therapist tell him to talk about how he feels. And so he complains.”

”Well at least he’s doing what he’s told to do”  
"So he’s not coming this time either?” Argent asked.  
“I…”  
“Hey!” Herald showed up with a smile. Locus was by his side. They were a thing now. And the media loved them.  
The all greeted him.  
“Where is he?” Herald asked.

”HE was a bit under the weather”

”Again?”

”Look .. It’s just.. Look.. he has good days.. and bad days. He might even show up later if he’s feeling…“

"Hey.” You just nudge Ortega lightly and speak with a tiny voice.

They explode. They hug you. They greet you. They are so glad you came. You, on the other hand are freaked out. You'r not used to this.  
“WOW! I LOVE THAT!” Herald looks at your hoodie. No way you you where going to dress formally. You had this one made by a company online. They tell you they sold a lot of them aferwards.  
It’s the latest meme.  
It’s two picture frames. One is Herald picking up Hollow Ground high into the air while he shoots his gun wildly. The the other one is Herald tossing him down into the magma lake he created.  
At the bottom of the two, bold letters state “DO NOT WANT”.  
You wish you had been conscious to see it live.  
Herald’s your hero since that day and he can do no wrong. 

And you love your new hoodie.

“How are you?” Steel asks  
“Oh. I’m.. fine. Getting better. Finished Rehab last week.” you answer. It took a long while for you to walk again after getting shot. But Ricardo was with you every step of the way.

You never felt so useless in your life. A stupid telepath on a wheelchair. Who wants to see that? 

You always did things yourself. Or had them forced upon you. But having someone take care of you just because they liked you… that’s new. And after you returned his mom from the cartel the three of you are almost like… like a family. 

“I’m so glad you came” Steel greets you. He likes that. He thinks it’s good… no he thinks it’s his duty to encourage you to do stuff every time he sees you. It’s so embarrassing. 

 

“Have a drink Cyrus!” Argent offers you a glass. It was weird betwen you at first. But she’s come around after she heard your testimony to congress. Ortega walked with you, and stayed right at your side all the time. Probably the scariest thing you ever did… talk live for so many people.. and on TV. People know you now. You can sense in their minds who are the ones that sometimes re-hear all the shit you said and cry. You never wanted to watch it again… the things you said… and you where not the only sentient re-gene giving testimony.  
“Can’t drink… . I’m on my meds.” Meds have helped a lot… But Dr. Filch warned you that you weren’t cured or anthing like it. And she’s been right. The voice is almost silent these days. But you’ve come up with panic attacks and tons of anxiety. Your “Fans” think you like being mysterious. The truth is some days you don’t even want to leave the house.  
“Oh.. right, i forgot about that” she apologizes.  
“So are you coming for training ext week?” Herald asks. You’ve been training with Him. And you even went patrolling with him a few times already.  
“Yes.. i’ll try to make it Herald.”  
“great!” he grins happily.  
Locus gives you a mental glare.  
You try to ignore it. She hates you because of how you blamed almost everything on her for months. She even got arrested at one point when she came out of rehab for drugs, not knowing anything that had happened. You’ll have to live with your infamy you guess. At least she’s not the Handyman. He keeps posting crazy conspirarcy theories against you online.  
“So! We'r all gathered! I think it’s about time we make this official.” Steel announces. Oh no. Don’t…  
“Sidestep.. I declare you ”  
Nononnonono don'tmakemethespotlightplease  
“… an official honorary …”  
Crap. He’s going to do this. And it’s too crowded to run.  
“… member of the rangers”  
You knew this was a trap.  
Everyone cheers. So many minds focused on you. You begin to sweat.  
……………………….

The party goes on. After greeting a few more people, you make yourself scarce and walk out, hiding near an old playground.  
You sit in one of the swings.  
Someone comes after you and sits in the next one. The only mind you can’t sense.  
“You know, we can leave if you want”  
“No… it’s fine. I think… I’m actually glad I came”  
“Really? You looked terrified when Steel caught ya off guard.”  
“Well Yes. I still am. But If I keep trying maybe i’ll get used to it at some point. Maybe?”  
He smiles. “Of course you will.”

“Ricardo?”

“What?” 

“Thank you.”

“What for?”

“ For not giving up on me.”

 

He hops of and stands in front of your swing.

He kisses you. You kiss him back.  
Life goes on.


End file.
